In today s day and age, there are more people working with their spouses than ever before in terms of owning a business together. You may think to yourself, “What better business partner to have than my husband or wife or significant other?”. However, the reality of the situation is that while it may seem like a well intentioned endeavor, sometimes owning a business with your significant other can be disastrous for not only your business but your relationship as well if you re not careful.
You simply cannot talk about running a business with your partner without talking about relationships. When you own a business as a 50/50 enterprise with someone who is not romantically involved with you, that s one thing. It s pretty cut and dry at that point and business is business as usual. However, when you then venture out to involve your significant other, things can get tricky. Many business owners feel that by getting family involved in the business, they ll somehow save money, and money is a destroyer of most relationships. Your loved ones may feel that their efforts aren t being respected or appreciated if you nickel and dime them or if they simply feel like they aren t getting paid their fair share. Additionally, there are those of us who may find out that our significant other is not really doing that great of a job with whatever aspect of the business he or she is involved in. Therefore, you may have to look for someone who can replace him or her. But how do you do this when you are around them all of the time? You ll eventually have to speak to them about it, and there is no doubt that that will be awkward.
Feelings can become hurt easily when you run a business with someone you care about. A wife or husband or other romantic partner may have difficulty separating a business decision from one that has to do with the romantic relationship. For example, if a wife is forced to hire someone non related to her in any way to replace her husband because it turned out that he was managing the finances poorly, then the husband might take it as a personal slight and feel like the wife is putting up a wall between them in the relationship when in fact, all that the wife is trying to do is save the business from future failure.
Before you get your significant other involved in any aspect of your business, you should always make sure that you talk it over with him or her first. Lay out the groundwork for what your goals for the business are as well as how he or she will fit into the picture. Also come up with a backup plan for termination just in case you are forced to hire someone. Sometimes being brutally honest is necessary when it comes to owning and operating a business. You want to be clear that when it comes to work, it is to be taken seriously.
Sometimes family members who work for each other become slack. While other non familial employees will have to show up at work on time no later than 9:00am, family members may feel that they are entitled to show up whenever they choose or not at all depending on their schedules. They may make other things in their lives a priority before work. Keep in mind that work should never take priority over having a relationship with a spouse or significant other as well as maintaining some semblance of a social or personal life. However, you should still be making it somewhat of a priority to show up on time as well as to work diligently while you are at work.
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