Wow…I just found out our Family Business blog on Homeschool Blogger earned the 5 year HSB Blogaversary Award. What an honor from Kristen. You can see the original Blogaversary Awards here:

Family Business Blog about working at home

Our blog was started in the first month of Homeschool Blogger 5 years ago. We’ve had a fun time here getting to know other families who want a family business. Thanks for a great 5 years and here’s to 5 more!

Working with your spouse can be wonderful, but also comes with some unique challenges. Here are some tips that will help you and your spouse run that business successfully together.

1. Have a set time each and every week to discuss the next week.
You can use this time to divide up tasks and responsibilities and go over the important action items that need to be done. For example, you can schedule this during the mornings on Mondays. It should take place the same time all of the time otherwise it is easy to forget.

2. Figure out who is responsible for what in the business and keep track of it.
One way you can do this is to put it in a central location, such as in your home office on a large whiteboard. You can add two separate columns on the board for the each of you and additional columns for any hired help you might have. You can also track appointments, promotions and events on a central calendar.

3. Use a giant calendar to keep tabs on appointments for business and family appointments using colors.
This way if you have events with your kids you can plan your business around them, which is one of the benefits to starting a home business.

4. Use strengths appropriately.
Each of you should focus on what you are strong at and hire or outsource out the rest. If you are going to hire employees or contractors make sure you decide and make clear which of you they will work for and what they are responsible for working on so that there is no confusion.

5. Make sure that before you start home business you know who is going to handle each household related task.
The kids still need to be shuttled around. Someone still needs to cook and clean in your house. You will make things easier for your spouse and your children if you have any if these responsibilities are discussed in advance.

6. Figure out what each of you are working on in the business and come up with a game plan for what will happen should one of you need to step away.
Think about what it will cost to hire someone to do those tasks instead. This is part of contingency planning, which is vital, especially if one of you gets pregnant or has other situations that require your attention other than the business.

Planning and thinking about these things in advance saves time, energy and money. Planning ahead of time makes it easier when you start home business.

_______________________

Copyright Stephen Beck, 2009
You have permission to reprint this article, as long as you don’t make any changes and include the bio below.

Stephen Beck teaches families how to write pdf ebooks. Get Stephen’s 3 free videos at http://www.8weekstoprofits.comso you can start now.

To start a home-based business working at home with your spouse, you will need to plan ahead on how you will work together. Here are 5 tips to help you.

1. Be very careful about not being willing to take criticism.
While we tend to resent criticism more from a spouse or loved one it is a necessary element to running a business. However, you should encourage your spouse to reserve any business related criticism for the specific times that you have set to actually work on your business.

2. Learn to separate business issues from family and marriage issues when you start a home based business.
It is never a good idea to merge these two issues together if you want a good business and marriage. You are two separate people with two separate opinions. However, it is not necessary to allow those separate opinions to cause unnecessary conflict with your marriage. It is also not necessary to bring up issues that have nothing to do with the business during times that you are running your business as well.

3. Set aside some time where you can get away from the home to do strategy sessions for your business.
It is a good idea to do this once a quarter and review how you are progressing towards your goals. You can do this over dinner, go to a quiet bar or coffee shop, attend a winery, anyplace where the environment is conducive for this type of meeting.

4. When you have a date night make sure that business is not the topic of discussion.
Even if you both enjoy what you do this can be a very unhealthy habit. You need time to be together as a couple without the business.

5. Look for opportunities to attend business conferences together.
Schedule an additional day after the conference to decide how you are going to apply the lessons learned or incorporate the networking relationships you built. Having your spouse will keep you more focused instead of partying all of the time.

When you start a home based business with your spouse it can be a rewarding and fun event, but it is important that you make sure that you keep your relationship strong both while working and outside of working.

Looking for practical advice for spouses who are considering becoming co-entrepreneurs or who already are? Look no further! Here are 3 tips to being successful as you work with your spouse.

1. Find a specific time to talk about business and be sure it is not during tv show/football game or when your spouse is working on his/her hobby. It’s imperative to your business success that you & your spouse talk about business and solve your problems. Just be careful when you decide to bring up those problems. If your spouse is settling into a sporting event on TV, that is probably not a good time. Neither is it a good time, if your spouse is working on scrapbooks or stamping.

2. Sending email sounds silly when your spouse is less than 8 feet away from you in the same room, but it does provide a written record to remind both of you. It also helps prevents future arguments. When you email something to your spouse, you usually spend a little more time thinking about what you write.

3. If your business is in your home, use a separate room for the office so you can close the door at dinner time and enjoy your family! Eating dinner together at the table is very important to us because it keeps the communication lines open with our kids. We try to discuss issues our kids are interested in (like Barry Bonds or a local event when we are eating dinner. We try to save business ideas to other times of the day. Have regular office hours, but be flexible during your busy season.

If you haven’t filled out our survey about working with your spouse, please take 3-5 minutes and do this. We will be interviewing spouses who work together and want to cover your concerns and needs.
Here’s the link: http://budurl.com/fesurvey

I’ll keep you posted when I get some interviews with spouses who work together.

Kerry