Many couples are successful in their personal relationships and then there are some who also succeed in running a business while raising a family at the same time. These entrepreneurial couples share both a home and a company and they make up an important part of the small business industry.
A survey on American family business done in the past decades showed that husband-and-wife entrepreneurs or CEOs of family businesses went up from eight percent in 1997 to 14 percent in 2002. The study was done by the MassMutual Financial Group and the Raymond Institute.
A professor from Oklahoma State University, Glenn Muske, for his part, noted that of the 22 million small businesses in 2000, 3 million were owned by couples.
Wharton Business School professor of management Stewart Friedman also pointed out that some couples succeed in running a business because the trust one has in a spouse as co-manager is often greater than one gives to any other business partner. He added that as business professionals, it would be easy for spouses to learn faster and share different perspectives.
Here are some of the married couples who were successful in launching their startups.
Successful Couples in Startups
Eventbrite owners Julia and Kevin Hartz are the couple behind the successful online events and ticketing platform. Eventbrite has, so far, processed 140 million tickets worldwide and has facilitated more than $2 billion in gross ticket sales. The Hartz couple attribute their marriage and their shared goals and passions in the success of their business partnership.
Victoria Ransom and Alain Chuard launched Wildfire in 2008 as an enterprise marketing platform application. It earned significant profits in its first year alone without any funding sourced from other groups. In 2012, Google bought the company at a price of $350 million. The couple said they worked as professionals when running their business and kept disagreements to themselves.
The Krogers are behind the Modcloth online vintage clothing retailer that earned more than $100 million in sales in 2012 alone.
Susan and Eric continue to manage the business and one of their strategies to keep the business and raise their family is outsourcing tasks they can’t focus on to people they trust and who can help them in various aspects of their personal lives.
Foodzie was founded by Emily and Rob LaFave to enable consumers to find and curate food offered by small food companies. They received an initial $1 million funding in 2008 and was acquired by Joyous in 2012. The couple said they enjoyed the mix of work and play in their life while running the business.
Their Strategies
Many of these enterprising couples claimed that one of the secrets to their successful business is separating home issues from office issues. Another strategy that works for most couples is dividing their tasks in both the home and office.
Some couples passionate about their business actually enjoy the mix of work and marriage in their life. They don’t mind discussing work at home and even continue to run their business while on vacation.
Others, on the other hand, do not want their personal relationship known in the office. What they often do is keep arguments between themselves and do their work as professionals.
So who says that marriage and business don’t mix? It all depends on how couples handle their situation and how committed they are in running and sustaining their business moving forward.