CHALLENGES OF RUNNING A BUSINESS WITH YOUR SPOUSE

Husbands and Wives in Business Together

Being an entrepreneur, self-starting business woman, and a wife is difficult. However, when you add in the dynamics of your husband being your business partner, things can get even more challenging. My husband and I have owned several businesses together and separately. The most successful businesses were the ones we worked on building together. They were also the most challenging business to manage because there were so many dynamics to doing it successful that clashed with our personalities, areas of passions, and work methods.

WHO IS THE BOSS?

That is the major hurdle that many couples have to establish. In our case, I had the business idea, but my husband was the business front man since he had the sales experience and passion for in person and phone sales. In his mind, he was the boss. In my mind, I was the boss. This bought challenges when it came to the goals of the business, who did what, who made the decisions, and of course the power struggle.

To fix this we had to:

·       Agree on mission of business

·       Create a business plan

·       Decide on how decisions were made

·       Divide areas of management determined by the person’s strength

·       Agree on expectations – write them down, make them visible

TIME MANAGEMENT

The other area that was hard to manage was our time. Since both of us needed to work the business, work our actual full time jobs, and parent our children, we had many times when we thought the other person was cooking dinner, putting the kids to bed or picking them up from school.

To fix this we had to:

·       Create weekly schedules

·       Assign each other or delegate task out

·       Cut time at full-time job (one of us) to part-time or hire a nanny

MAKE TIME FOR LIFE AND DATES

Sometimes the business takes over. It can cause stress to manifest in the personal relationship of the couple in business. Building a business is fun, exciting and like raising a child that you have more control over. If you aren’t careful though, it will consume everything you care about.

To fix this we had to:

·       Have standing date night – no talking business, kids, or work (we played board games, went to movies, or a day trip)

·       Take mandatory vacation (even if only for two days)

·       Do something special for each other, write notes to remind each other we love them, sneak off for breakfast.

·       Continue to work on our balancing act

By LM Preston, author of Building Your Empowered Steps and Homeschooling and Working While Raising Amazing Learners, www.EmpoweredSteps.com

Make Dreams Into Reality, Piece By Piece

You ever wonder if you could climb that mountain if you just considered concentrating on that ONE STEP at A TIME.

CAN'T CONCEIVE THE BIG DREAM?

That was me, for a long time. The burden of all the steps to make my goals become a reality was just to much to consider and was really overwhelming.

This is a major trip up for many people. They have anxiety at thinking of all they things they have to do in order to meet their goals.

START WITH ONE STEP AT A TIME

This is the meat and potatoes to personal accomplishments. Focus only on the one step in front of you. Then take the next and the next. Each time, it gets easier, the challenges - heck, you've seen them before and are knocking them down like a practiced warrior. Once you have the hang of each one step at a time, then you can start to conceive and feel more confident taking that next BIG DREAM or GOAL on with the precision of planning.

ROME WASN'T BUILT IN A DAY

I love that saying! It is a funny reminder that progression and big endeavors take time, planning, and consistency.

The Choice to Be Happy

What Does It Mean To Be Happy?

It's an attitude, a perspective on things. Can you change that? Are you willing too? That's a question I ask myself every now and then. I remind myself to relax, pinpoint my mind on things that make me smile, fill my presence with those things, pick them out of the mess of the day.

A mind and heart is a powerful thing, when we use it to turn our mood, make a smile in spite of sadness, and to consider the ways we can turn our situation around.

HAPPINESS is a FLEETING EMOTION

It is all the more sweeter when you have the balance of sadness, anger, boredom, stepping in and out. When happiness comes in the room, it will be appreciated and savored.

CONTENTEDNESS is the calm sea that breeds HAPPY MOMENTS

Between those moments we claim, wrestle and that make us feel the euphoria of happiness, being content gives you a comfort and peace that is as fulfilling as the seeking of fulfillment.

TURN THAT FROWN UPSIDE DOWN

Make yourself laugh. I personally love comedy. It makes me happy which is why I married a man that is hilarious when he wants to be, which is most of the time. Our date night is usually a comedy or fun action packed movie. When we were scraping nickles together we made it a point to splurge on these.

Reflect On Your Year, Growth, Setbacks To Step Up

Reflect, then Step

Every year since I was a teen, I used December as a time to reflect. I believe it started when my grandmother died. That year was so hard for me since she had been like a 2nd mother to me all of my life.

She died in December, just days before Christmas. It was significant. A time of joy, hope, and I lost her. That year she left, was hard. I promised myself I would survive it.

I did, ONE STEP at A TIME until I got to the NEXT level then the NEXT.

REFLECT

Do your reflection in strength, with knowing that all the challenges were tools to make you stronger, to give you something to learn about yourself, and that you are here, to do a better turn of your challenges next year.

Then let the emotions spill, flush, cleanse you of this year. This year for me was very difficult. I don't want to forget the losses or the gains. I want to gather up those stones to build my NEXT STEP.

THE NEXT LEVEL

Sure, everyone starts with a New Years resolution. This time, start with a NEW YOU resolution. Take one of those losses and ask yourself what you can learn from it, how you want to grow from it. Then take one of your gains, and smile at that, be thankful for it.

Then...step towards your next level.

Why You Should Not Take No for An Answer

I NEVER DID like that word NO

It's funny how the world most successful people never took 'NO' for an answer. They always came up with innovative ways to make their passion and dreams come true.

WERE YOU TAUGHT AS A CHILD TO OBEY the word NO?

Yes, we all were. Some people intuitively never listen to their benefit and their detriment. Well it's time you free yourself from the binds of that word.

Evaluate your life goals and plan your way around the 'NO'.

HOW and WHEN I HAVE overCOME THE WORD 'NO'

There are many times I worked out in my mind how I was going to accomplish a task that appeared to have every door closed.

One was a recent accomplishment of owning my own publishing company with my husband during a time when publishing and small press publishers were frowned upon. It was hard to get taken seriously, it was not fun getting all the rejection. However, in spite of all of those 'NOs', I found my YES, YES and YES.

Now owning a small press that has helped other authors, want to be publishers, and dreamers reach their star, I can honestly say, I am grateful for being born with a hard head that didn't absorb other's negative barriers, but found ways around them.

SHARE WITH ME HOW YOU TURNED A 'NO' into a 'YES'