How To Balance Being Partners in Business and In Life

14 Nov How To Balance Being Partners in Business and In Life

 

Recently we have noticed a theme around a lot of the conversations in our Facebook community addressing the many challenges of being in a relationship and owning a business with a partner. Living this first-hand with my Tradie husband, I really understand the struggles that are faced and the all-consuming feeling of never having any real separation between work and home life. It feels off kilter a lot of the time.

When you work with a partner, live with them, and often raise children together, there definitely needs to be some boundaries in place (for the sake of everyone’s sanity!).

I wanted to share some tips, based both on my experience, as well as things I have learned from the conversations in the Facebook group, that may help you navigate being in business with your significant other.

• Define your roles – setting roles in the business is key. Knowing that each other is responsible for helps to avoid any miscommunications and strengthens your teamwork.
• Play to your strengths – Identify each other’s strengths and weaknesses and draw from that. Do the things each of you enjoy doing in the business and outsource the rest where possible.
• Trust/respect your spouse (and their role) – understand that you are a team. Each role is equally as important. One partner is not ‘helping’ the other.
• Set up clear business rules – following the same processes and procedures in the business is really important. It makes everything clear and professional and is also assurance to your clients and suppliers, that everyone is on the same page.
• Create solid marriage and work boundaries – I know this is easier said than done and the lines are easily blurred but work life balance is essential. The clearer these boundaries are, the more successful, productive, and happy you both will be.
• Take a break – the best piece of advice I have heard and something that we implement, is when things come to a standstill and you can’t see a way forward whether it be in the business or your personal life, remove yourself from the situation for as long as you can. Change your environment completely, rest and rejuvenate and come back with a fresh pair of eyes.
• Schedule ‘no work’ time together – It can’t be all work. Always make time to come back to what attracted you to each other in the first place (before life got all serious). Plus, it’s good team building!
• Make time for your own interests and hobbies – when you are in each other’s pockets all the time, it’s important to have some time away just for you and schedule it just like you would any other appointment.
• Pick your battles – don’t sweat the small stuff. Trust me on this one.
• Celebrate the milestones – when reaching for the bigger goals, it’s easy to miss acknowledging the small wins. Be sure to celebrate every achievement no matter how big or small, even if it’s making it through a day where everything runs smoothly. These are all stepping stones to the bigger picture and like they say ‘success is not a destination, it’s a journey.’

While it can be extremely challenging, the reward that comes with being able to build and grow something together is second to none. Owning a business is tough, but when you have someone to ride the ups and downs with, who is also working towards the same goals, it really makes the journey incredibly worthwhile.  

We dive a little deeper into this over on the TradieWives podcast, where we chat with fellow TW Suzanne Worsley from Beaumont Air Conditioning Solutions, about her journey of working in the business with her Tradie.

Jump over and have a listen:

 

 

** This blog post is proudly sponsored by our TradieWives partners, Finlease. Finance that fits – because You’re Already Managing Too Many Tools ? find the awesome team here – www.finlease.com.au **