5 Reasons You Shouldn't Become Business Partners with Your Spouse or Friends

So you want to be an Entrepreneur or have been involved in some form of Cottage Industry for a while now. In the beginning the Idea is a marvelous one. You are dreaming of endless streams of money, of building your own future instead of the future of someone else, of working in your PJ's, and making your own hours. The reality is often far from reality.

You can set your own hours by any means, but most of the times those hours will be a lot longer then you have worked for someone else. The Stress of having to succeed and work in so many areas that you can barely handle it may drive you to consider taking on a Partner. Since Budgets are usually a larger concern you may even be tempted to take that partner from your pool of friends or family Members.

From someone who made this mistake her-self, please allow me to point out to you the potential pitfalls you don't foresee beforehand.

There is no such thing as a "Business Talk"

My husband and I tried to Partner in an Amateur Production Company. I was the Talent, the Business Manager, the PR Person, the Webmistress - essentially I was responsible for staring in the movies and photos as well as the entire front / business end of it.

His Job was to be the Photographer / Videographer, Lighting Person, occasional Talent and the Editor.

Now here begins the problem. As the person on the front end of it all, I was responsible for regular updates, releases and marketing. Which means I needed to have a steady influx of promotional materials, new content being shot, movies and photos being edited in a timely manner, and of course having a schedule for meetings set up.

That is where the problem begins. My husband simply couldn't be bothered half of the time. Which means shoots would be canceled last moment; the content was not edited because he was too busy with other priorities. (Don't ask).

Now comes the treaded Business Talk. Trust me, when you are married to your Partner and that person is already "not all that into doing his / her part", there is no such thing as a Business Talk. There will be a fight. It isn't like you can tell this person to go take a flying leap without destroying the Relationship as well. Tension from either side of the fence will eventually come in. With other words, you are constantly either avoiding each other or fighting. In my case, the company died a slow death. After several month of hiding the fact from our Members and Customers, I had to admit defeat. WE officially closed the company down. There is still content in its raw form sitting on his computer that was shot months ago, which I will never get my hands on.

The I am doing you a favor here attitude!

Nothing destroys a friendship quicker then being in business with each other. For some reason people seem to think that being Friends means that you can be less then reliable or prompt. I started a Business Venture with a friend of mine. She had better marketing skills then I had and I was a better content provider. Our Friendship slowly collapsed when things didn't go as well in the Business front. NO matter what we would try to do as friends, the attitude of ...you know you owe me ... seemed to creep up.

This is work time, doesn't seem to compute!

It is hard enough to concentrate on your work when you are working from out of your home. You really have to have a certain amount of self discipline in order to get your work done. Managing to have your family respect your work times and work space is another difficult thing to do. Add the Idea of partnering with someone that usually has access to you in a private arena and you are asking for trouble.

That was one of the biggest issues I had in my home when I tried to Partner with either one of my family Members. I had agreements on what is supposed to be getting done, but when it finally got down to it, the supposed work time was never used for work. It is really difficult to argue with someone you live with, why it can't be done later. The lines of authority and sections seem to be blurred.

Constant Tension in your haven!

If something goes wrong with the business all you want to do is get away from it for a while. You want to be able to just forget about it for a few moments and relax. Once you and your spouse are Business Partners you can no longer do that. Even just looking at them will remind you of what is going on. There is constant tension in your home. The last place you want the tension to remain.

If the Business falls apart due to the failure of one or both people you may lose more then your Business.

Once you make the mistake of linking your life partnership with your business partnership you are running an extreme risk of ruining both. Not only is it difficult to remember that there are times you are business partners and other times that you are life partners, but when the business falls apart it often is a death stroke for your relationship as well.

No matter how much you may think you can avoid the blame game, it is never a reality. One or more of the Partners will hold the other one accountable and feel resentful. Losing your dream is difficult enough without having to add losing your marriage on top of it.

I am aware that there are couples that are able to work through these problems successfully. There are exceptions to every rule after all. I am simply offering up a warning to you about pitfalls that have ruined a lot for me while making that particular mistake. I hope you will be more successful if you decide to forge ahead.