Are Ma and Pa Businesses Right for Your Relationship?

Ma and Pa businesses have a long and profitable reputation in the United States. These businesses are successful because they enable a couple to work together to run the various components of the business. Each partner contributes something unique to the business, and each complements the other's skill set. For example, while one partner attends to the management of the general business responsibilities the other can handle merchandising and customer service. While these businesses can be very successful and slightly easier to manage than a private enterprise, they are not appropriate for every couple to take on.

Pros of Ma and Pa Businesses

There are many advantages of starting a ma and pa business. The first benefit is that you are not in your business venture alone. You always have a backup person to help you make decisions and to shoulder the responsibilities of the business. This type of business structure also ensures that the business partners have a unified focus and mission for the business, which is not always the case when working with a third party business partner. The third benefit is that ma and pa businesses also have many tax benefits for the couple, as some payroll taxes and rules do not apply to spouses and children of the business's owner.

Cons of Ma and Pa Businesses

While there are many advantages of starting and operating a ma and pa business, there are also numerous disadvantages of this type of business structure. The first drawback is that you have to spend extended periods of time with your spouse or life partner. This can be difficult for some people, as they never have time to explore career options alone.

Another disadvantage is that the dynamics of a business relationship can be difficult to manage when you are also married or involved romantically with your business partner. This means that conflicts at home can impact the business and conflicts at work can impact the relationship. This is a very common problem that ma and pa businesses produce.

The third disadvantage is that if the business fails then the household's entire income source is destroyed. This is a problem that can be very damaging to a marriage and to a family.

Are Ma and Pa Businesses Right for Your Relationship?

After weighing the pros and cons of ma and pa businesses you need to critically think about if your relationship is strong enough to withstand the extra pressure of going into business with a spouse. A good way to mediate and mitigate for the problems associated with ma and pa businesses is to establish ground rules for how the business is to be run and to clearly delineate who is responsible for which business activities. This will help to reduce the conflict at work and at home. Another tip is to keep home life and business life separate. For example, you can establish rules that business conflicts are dealt with at work and home conflicts are dealt with at home.