All this month, we’ve been looking at ways to include your family in your franchise business. First, we covered what to do when one spouse will be the primary franchisor (spoiler alert: it’s still a partnership). Then we shared some key tips for prospective franchisees who want to bring their children into the business. This week, we’re looking at how to work successfully with your spouse when your franchise is a joint endeavor.
First, let’s look at some data. If you and your spouse want to operate a franchise together, know that you’re not alone. Roughly 1.2 million American businesses are jointly owned and operated by spouses. Looking at small businesses specifically, approximately 22% are owned and operated by spouses working together.
If you’re considering being part of this group, be proactive. Take time now to talk with your spouse and plan for success, before you actually purchase your franchise. Note that this blog post is not about the legal or financial aspects of operating a business with your spouse. Please speak with a tax or legal professional for help with that. Rather, Lauri and I want to share the relationship lessons we’ve learned from working together.
How It Started
Several years ago, if you had asked us whether we planned to own and operate a business together, we would have said, “Definitely not.”
Part of this was by necessity. When Dave worked as a corporate executive, his job was extremely demanding, and we had to relocate every few years. Lauri, who’s an interior designer by training, took on the occasional client during those years, but her primary role was CEO of our family. She was fully occupied with managing our home, social obligations, our kids’ educational and medical needs, and our many moves across the country and overseas.
Dave’s preferences played a role, too. Due to his background in an entrepreneurial family where spouses and siblings worked together, he wanted to try a different path and keep work and family life separate. While Dave was in the corporate world, we always encouraged and advised each other about major issues, but we didn’t talk in detail about his day-to-day experiences in the office.
How It’s Going
That all started to change when we decided to leave the corporate world. Although we didn’t talk a lot about Dave’s daily work as an executive, we always made important decisions together. So it was our choice, not just Dave’s, to leave the corporate world and take up franchising.
We also researched franchising together and made a joint decision about what kind of franchise to buy. While Dave handled the business side of launching, Lauri oversaw interior design for our six franchise locations and went back to work full time to provide a financial cushion during the startup phase.
Our executive franchises eventually reached a point where they didn’t need Dave’s day-to-day involvement. By that point, Lauri was occupied again with household matters, overseeing a move and renovation. As Dave transitioned into franchise consulting, however, he started seeing a lot of areas where Lauri’s skills would be useful. She began to take on an increasing role in the business, first to help with administration, and later to assist with advising certain candidates. Now, we’re both fully involved in the business and consult both jointly and on our own.
So when we share tips on how to work successfully with your spouse, we’re speaking from experience – just like when we guide people on the path to choosing a franchise. Based on that experience, here are our top 5 tips to owning and operating a business together.
Our Top 5 Tips
The marriage comes first
This is non-negotiable. Owning a business can be stressful sometimes. If you’re owning and operating it with your spouse, the stress can carry over into your marriage. You’ll have the best chance of both working successfully with your spouse and staying married if you always put the marriage first.
That means preserving time together as spouses, staying on the same team while tackling challenges, and being willing to change the working relationship if it threatens your personal relationship. If you need to see a therapist to help you manage the dynamic, do it. Good old-fashioned commitment plays a role here, too. Go into any challenge with the perspective that you will solve it in favor of your marriage.
Play to your strengths
As evidenced by her many years maintaining a smooth-running household, Lauri is an organizational wizard. She excels at getting stuff done. And she’s a great listener, skilled at making people feel understood and cared for when they’re struggling with challenges or uncertainty.
Dave’s skills complement Lauri’s. He’s good at seeing the big picture and setting strategies and goals. After several decades of business leadership, he has solid intuition about risks and opportunities. And he excels at mentoring and motivating people who want to grow.
To work successfully with your spouse, do some self-assessment to understand your skillsets, then take on roles that play to your strengths. We each take candidates based on how their needs match our individual skills as consultants, and we each manage parts of the business in the same way.
Appreciate your spouse’s contributions
When Lauri was focused on running our household, Dave often referred to her as the CEO of our family as a way of showing appreciation for everything she did. And Lauri showed her appreciation for Dave’s business skills by serving as his primary support during those years.
Knowing your own and your spouse’s strengths is important, but appreciating those strengths matters just as much. You’ll work together more agreeably if you show your gratitude for each other’s work. Recognize that your business would not be as successful without both of you, and express that appreciation in language your spouse can understand. Your gestures don’t have to be grand, although those are nice sometimes. Try to take time every day to thank your spouse for something specific they’ve done to make the business better.
Figure out your optimal level of togetherness
When you’re owning and operating a business with your spouse, it’s easy to spend every waking moment together. You don’t have the automatic separation of spending the workday apart. To stay mentally healthy, you’ll need to build in time for each of you to maintain your own identities and interests – but how much time will vary from couple to couple and person to person.
To ensure that you’re allowing enough breathing room in your relationship, keep the lines of communication open about your individual needs. Recognize that you may have to go through some trial and error to figure out your ideal arrangement, and that the ideal may change over time. We’ve opted to build a mix of togetherness and separation into our daily routines, both in terms of our schedule and our physical workspaces. We usually enjoy our morning coffee together and often check in with each other throughout the day, but we have our own offices. We also try to balance joint and solo appointments with franchise candidates.
Maintain space for your personal relationship
This ties back to our first tip: put your marriage first. You married your spouse for reasons that probably had nothing to do with business, and you’re unlikely to keep operating your business together to the end of your lives. First and foremost, you have a personal relationship. If you want it to thrive, it has to be tended separately from your business partnership.
This can be challenging if you’re launching a business together. If you have kids, it might help to adopt some of the same strategies you used when they were young and demanded much of your time and attention. Have realistic expectations, and focus on grabbing personal time together where you can get it. Be willing to do simple things like take a walk in the park, sit down for coffee together, or do a crossword. You don’t have to turn everything into a fancy date – just spend time together.
As your business reaches maintenance stage, take advantage of the flexibility and empowerment of franchising to schedule more time together as a couple. Close up your laptops at midday sometimes, or take those trips you’ve always wanted. You got into franchising for the freedom – use it to make your marriage even better!
Curious about franchising as a couple? Lauri and I are here to help you work successfully with your spouse. Book a call with one of us today to start the conversation – our services are always free!
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