By Elizabeth Condra
Most people say not to mix business with pleasure. My husband and I did it seven months into our marriage.
We were newlyweds when we bought our first rental property together. Before we married, we discussed the merits of having passive income while we maintained our full-time jobs. It also helps that my husband is a born entrepreneur. Those instincts are less natural to me, but as with so many financially oriented things, they can be learned.
Now, we’re five years into our marriage and our business partnership. We’ve acquired more properties and even begun a new venture in the last year in a completely different domain. Most marriages change over time, but when you go into business together, that chance becomes a certainty. Here’s what we’ve learned so far.
First, going into business has strengthened our partnership. Many people refer to their spouses as their partners, but we feel it in every sense of the word. We’re husband and wife and co-parents, and now we’re tied together professionally and personally. Even though we used to approach finances differently as single people, we now try to approach both our business and household finances as a team. We’re not going it alone, which means we share the burdens as well as the successes.
Secondly, we quickly became acquainted with financial transparency. Many couples may choose not to share bank accounts or statements, but when you are business owners, it’s a necessity. We know how the other person spends, saves, budgets, and organizes, as well as how much is in their accounts.
We also learned one another’s strengths and weaknesses in the early days of our business partnership. When you’re married and removed from your spouse’s line of work or their professional life, it’s easy to idealize the “home” version of them that you know and love. But when you become partners, you quickly see their weaknesses as much as their strengths, and vice versa! What complements the marriage may not complement the business–for example, you might adore how much your spouse is a dreamer, or a big picture thinker. But when it comes to managing the finer details of payroll, employees, interest rates, and so on, these qualities become more frustrating and less endearing.
It’s crucial to set boundaries on how much you’re willing to let work in your home. However tempting, you probably don’t want work invading your date night, or playtime with your kids, and it’s key that your spouse understands and respects that as well. When overwhelmed with tasks, everything in the house can quickly turn into work, and all the fun, romanticism, and spontaneity can suffer. Leave work at the office and be at home when you’re home.
Power dynamics naturally come into play as well. I feel I can comfortably and easily follow my husband’s lead in our marriage. When it comes to work, I feel I have a bigger say in our marketing strategy, or in whether we purchase a property. My husband handles the day-to-day, including maintenance and collecting rent. I manage our home and our kids, while also researching different spaces for sale, in addition to marketing and advertising. In the early days of our relationship, we settled into our married roles easily, but the business partnership wasn’t as seamless. Over the years, I’m happy to say, both have only improved with time and a greater understanding and deeper respect for one another.
Not every married couple goes into partnership anticipating that they’ll one day hold a six-figure business or wind up on Shark Tank. Business, like marriage, is hard work. Growth doesn’t happen overnight, and success is often hard won. At the end of the day, every individual needs to know one thing: that, if necessary, they would protect the marriage before anything else. As someone who continues to grow in financial strategy, I’ve observed over the years just how often business opportunities come and go. But love is sacred, and in the end, that’s the only partnership that needs to stand the test of time.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elizabeth is a writer from the Heart of Dixie. A city girl at heart, she lives with her three chickens, two kids, and husband on the outskirts of her beloved hometown. When she’s not writing, she’s reading, singing, homeschooling, or thrifting.
