RESOURCES

Couples in Business

Ambitious entrepreneurs and visionary professionals, who pour enormous energy and resources into developing their businesses, can create great benefit for their families, their communities and for the world.

In the process of developing their businesses and professions and making such a contribution, one or both people often leave behind the needs of the couple and the intimate relationship.

At some point, someone wakes up and says, "This is not working the way we intended it to work, the way we need it to work. We are working so hard for our business that the intimacy, love and enjoyment that inspired our work in the first place has disappeared!"

Miriam Hawley
Enlignment, Inc.
The Couples Retreat: Renewing Love

There are several great reasons for couples to unite in business. You know each other, trust each other and share a commitment to what you're doing. You already have a communication process in place, perhaps even a good one. You may even have complementary skills, specialized knowledge and experience that combined will help your business run more efficiently. And because you live together, there may be additional savings in taxes, benefits, child care and other work-related expenses. By owning and operating your own business, you can steer your own course around market downturns and corporate layoffs.

Jay MacDonald
Bankrate.com
Married, with business: Love alone won't keep you together

Copreneurs, or couples in business together are viewed as working in the "perfect" situation combining family and business goals. Copreneurs are viewed as having blended the dimensions of work and family. Copreneurs offer that unique team of husband and wife, two individuals with shared goals, dreams, and ideals. Yet the blending of work and family also creates the opportunity for new tension such as boundaries, conflict, roles, neglect of personal needs, inequitable division of responsibilities, and time and financial pressures.

Glenn Muske, Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service, Oklahoma State University and Margaret A. Fitzgerald, Dept of Child Development and Family Science, North Dakota State University, with JongEun Kim (Student), Oklahoma State University
Copreneurs As Family Businesses: Evaluating The Differences By Industry Type

Futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard writes, "We find one or more others who share our passion to create. We communicate our excitement. We commit to action. We seek our co-creative work partners. We practice win-win decision making. We learn cooperative entrepreneurship. We apply the best principles of the free enterprise system to free us to fulfill our life purposes through chosen work."

Being open enough to tell another about who you think you really are, what you yearn for, and what you believe you are meant to do in the world opens the space for others to act with courage, as well.

Carole and David Schwinn
Journal for Quality & Participation, 10409602, May/Jun 2000, Vol. 23, Issue 3
Co-Creative Couples: Creating What Cannot Be Created Alone

Family businesses are very popular today, and there has been an influx of young talent into family-owned businesses for several reasons. Business Week states: "All over the country, the bright young types who formerly opted for management consulting or the fast track at blue-chip corporations are eagerly joining family businesses. . . . Changed attitudes and a changing economy account for this turnabout." It seems that people are tired of bureaucracy and have turned to family ventures in hopes of success, security, and humanistic work values. . . .

Members of family ventures can experience problems of control, fairness, and equity, credibility, family dynamics, and succession during the course of the firm's operation. While there are no absolute prescriptions, problems of control, fairness, and equity can be mitigated by the following four strategies: expression of interest, acquisition of experience, acceptance of responsibility, and establishment of networks. In addition, there are three ways to minimize problems of family dynamics: definition of responsibility, emphasis on issues, and establishment of mechanisms.

They should ask themselves:

		Am I cultivating an entrepreneurial mind (i.e., attitudes and behaviors)?

		What are the critical skills and know-how required in the business now and in the immediate future?

		In what ways will my personal needs be satisfied through the family venture?

		If we plan to double the size of the business in the next 3, 5, or 10 years, what are the likely requirements?

		What do I bring to the team now, and later?

		What are my strengths, and what do I need to work on?

		What additional relevant "chunks" of experience do I need, and how can I get them?

		What other aspects of the business do I need to learn?

		Do I have the qualities to be a leader?

		Am I happy working in the business, and does it give me energy?

		Is there anything else I need to be doing to meet my goals?