Business Partners ‘Till Death Do They Part: Tips for Couples In Business Together (Part 2)

Based on The Institute’s conversations with married small business owners the Hochdorfs, Mershons and Rindsbergs earlier this week, we pulled together a few tips for couples running (or thinking of starting) a business together. Dr. Patricia Greene, special academic advisor to The Institute, weighed in with her thoughts:

1. Evaluate each others’ strengths and weaknesses as business people and your ability to work well together. 

Dr. Greene adds, “The challenge is often to be able to separate personal and professional strengths and weaknesses and admit when one person is stronger (or weaker) than the other. Often it is helpful to have an external voice to evaluate these things.” 

2. Specify your individual professional goals as well as your goals for the business.  Make sure you are both aligned on those goals.

“The most important thing here is to be honest with each other, and to recognize that it is entirely possible that your goals will change over time,” said Dr. Greene. 

3. Designate specific roles for yourselves in the business.

“Don’t be afraid to be innovative with your roles and divide up the tasks in creative ways that fit you and your business.  You don’t have to match anyone else’s org chart,” said Dr. Greene.

4. Keep it professional in the work space.

"Not only for you, but for those around you,” said Dr. Greene.  “You are setting the tone for everyone that works in the business.  You need to respect each other so the others will do the same.”

5. Be diligent in engaging in open, honest communication. Learn to work through disagreements.

Dr. Greene advises that couples formulate a plan for how they will work through disagreements. “Determine what can be done in front of others (and how), what can go home, and what should never go home.”

6. Make time for yourselves as a couple. Make your marriage a top priority.

“And figure out how the rest of the family works into the picture as well,” said Dr. Greene.

7. Establish a game plan on what to do with your professional partnership if your personal partnership dissolves. Dr. Greene adds this final piece of advice for couples to consider.

We also discovered the following infographic by Column Five via the Intuit Small Business Blog that addresses husband and wife business partnerships.

Business Partners ‘Till Death Do They Part: Can Couples Really Run a Business Together? (Part 1)

For some couples the commitment of “I do” transcends the home and enters the boardroom, for better or for worse.

There are nearly 4 million family-owned businesses in the U.S., and more than 1.4 million have husband and wife teams, according to the 2007 Survey of Business Owners. The stress of running a business on top of managing a household can be onerous, and many who are in business with their valentines can attest to the difficulties. The lack of separation, challenge of finding a healthy work / life balance and struggles of being a small business owner can often be overwhelming for couples. For others, they see their spouse as an ideal business partner because of the natural trust they share and commitment in making the business succeed.

So how do they make it work? The Institute spoke with a few married couples to learn their perspective of running a business together and find out their secrets to success.

“It’s essential that you understand the strengths and weaknesses of your partner and that you establish a clear delineation of roles in the business,” said Robert Hochdorf, who co-owns Button It Up, a novelty photography business in Atlanta, Georgia, with his wife Sharon.

Sharon started Button It Up in 1987, spending more than 20 years running the business herself. Robert joined as co-owner of the business in March 2008. He notes that the two did not have a “conscious plan” to become business partners, but that the partnership happened organically. “The two of us working together meant the business could expand, and we’ve been successful in growing the business in the last four years,” Robert adds. 

Barrie Mershon explains that her husband Ric initially started their business, Ric Mershon Photographers, and she joined him after two years. “The plan was that he would run the business solo, but then we realized that my strengths were different than and complimentary to his,” said Barrie.

Denise Rindsberg, president of Let’s Celebrate Events, an event design company that specializes in customized art designs, says one way couples can maintain both a strong partnership and healthy marriage is by having separate hobbies and sections of the business. She explains that her husband Frank runs the tech side of the business while she is in charge of the design and client side. The two have been working together for about 12 years. “We think differently about the business and go about building it differently, which ultimately makes it successful, ” said Denise.   

Some couples find that sharing the responsibilities of operating the business grants them more flexibility as a family.  “Robert devoted a lot of time to the business in the past. It was as if he was working two jobs, so it just made sense that he join the business,” said Sharon. “Plus, it allowed us to be on the same schedule.” Prior to becoming co-owner of Button It Up, Robert worked a typical Monday through Friday, 9-5 job, whereas Sharon spent most nights and weekends working.

For Barrie, she admits that the ease of syncing her work schedule with her husband’s is as much of an advantage as it is a challenge. “We spend far too much time together. The whole, ‘Honey, how was your day?’ question doesn’t often come up with us. We know exactly how the other’s day has been,” she said. “We have learned over the years that we have to schedule dates – even lunches – where business topics are off limits.”

Couples agree that trying to detach from the business after hours is a challenge. “As a small business owner, your business is an integral part of your life,” said Sharon. “But when your spouse is associated with the business, it becomes an even bigger part of your life.”   Robert adds that running a business together with Sharon creates a “commonality of interest and focus” between them. “The constant interaction between us is just part of our marriage, and it works for us.”

Be on the lookout for our follow up post later this week that that provides tips for couples in business together.

Small Business Success Factors Video

Top Trends for Small Business Owners in 2012

The New Year is quickly approaching and small business owners can expect 2012 to present just as many opportunities as challenges.  The Institute recently identified six trends small business owners are likely to face in 2012 as well as six actions owners can take to prepare for likely challenges in the coming year.

1.  Continued economic volatility in 2012.

• Action: Develop and deploy integrated action plans. Dynamic, flexible and proactive short-term and long-term plans make it possible for a business to deal with immediate challenges.

2.  Access to capital will continue to be tight, and lending practices even tighter. 

• Action: Consider where borrowed money can do the most for your business. According to The Institute’s data, business owners responded that the best thing to do with borrowed money is upgrade equipment (91.2 percent), cover short-term cash flow (81.3 percent) and invest in marketing (81.3 percent).

3.  Significant numbers of marginally successful businesses will be pushed to the brink

•  Action: Improve productivity.  A difficult economy presents an opportunity to right-size a company for long-term success.  Small business owners should ensure they have the right people in the right positions so they can focus on growing the business.

4.  Larger companies will aggressively market to prospects considered “too small” in the past.

• Action: Look for ways to meaningfully differentiate. Big businesses are vulnerable to the more responsive, localized and personal way of doing business that smaller firms can offer.

5.  Election-year campaign rhetoric will create an atmosphere of tension and negativity.

• Action: Be optimistic! If small business owners exude a sense of confidence, optimism and focus, their customers and employees will feel it and respond accordingly.

6.  Trade-offs and deal-making will characterize 2012.

• Action: Cut deals that create certainty for vendors, customers and the business.  Now is the ideal time to reconsider and revise business approaches and rethink how each dollar spent helps or hurts the business. Sit down with vendors and larger customers and offer to make commitments in return for price reductions or better payment terms.

For more information on each of the trends, visit The Institute website here.

Find out what the media are saying about The Institute’s predictions for 2012:

• Entrepreneur.com
• Forbes.com
• CNBC.com
• The New York Times
• BusinessNewDaily
• Examiner.com



Why Are Fewer Than 10 Percent of Women Founding Tech Startups?

In research released in late 2009, The Guardian Life Small Business Research Institute predicted that women entrepreneurs in the United States will create more than 5 million new jobs by 2018, which is more than half of the small business jobs the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects to be created over that time period.  Unfortunately, the number of those jobs being created in the high-tech industry isn’t as overwhelmingly optimistic.

According to research from Stanford Graduate School of Business Project on Emerging Companies, fewer than 10 percent of high-tech startups have a female CEO, founder or president. And yet, women own about 40 percent of the private businesses in the United States, according to the Center for Women's Business Research.

So why aren’t women leading tech startups? This issue continues to be clouded by complexity.

Certain small business leaders cite lack of access to capital. Women-owned startup companies tend to start with less capital than male-owned startups, according to research by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. However, the first and second quarter of 2011 brought some good news for women entrepreneurs seeking capital. Recent findings by the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire report that 26 percent of women entrepreneurs seeking angel investment in the first half of 2011 received it, which is above the overall average.

Dr. Patricia Greene, the Guardian Institute’s academic advisor, believes that the hurdles that were focused on 10 years ago – including financing and creating networks to support women tech entrepreneurs – are still plaguing female tech startup founders today.  Although these challenges have eased over time, they continue to be discussed in the media.  

Others reference the steps women take (or don’t take) to prepare themselves to launch a startup. Research by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation finds that women do not patent their research as often as men do.  Additionally, women do not serve on scientific advisory boards of private companies as frequently as men do (the Foundation reports that the make-up of boards in private industry is overwhelmingly male, at approximately 93 percent). The Kauffman Foundation says this gender difference in business preparation can be addressed with better mentorship and networks that will help guide women entrepreneurs in making important connections and decisions regarding their businesses. Resources like Women 2.0, a global media company that supports female entrepreneurs and hopes to increase the number of female founders in tech startups, seek to mediate this issue.

Not everyone from the small business community points to the challenges faced by women-owned tech startups as cause for the disparity. Eileen Burbidge, an early-stage tech angel investor and advisor, told TechCrunch that she believes the low number of women in tech startups has more to do with a “supply side issue rather than a demand one.”

As Burbidge addresses, there is some discussion on whether women who work in technology even want to start their own businesses and if they are actively taking advantage of tech-related opportunities.

“There is no question that women are capable of building high-tech companies,” added Greene. “There are many questions about trying to paste women into an existing system that just doesn’t look that desirable to them. Those are the more interesting questions and deserve the more innovative answers.”