3 Essential Boundaries for Mom Entrepreneurs and Their
Husbands
January 19th
2006
|
 |
|
TeriLee |
|
In the beginning, I thought it was going to be a breeze when my husband,
Terry, joined me working full-time in my business. If anyone could do
it, we could! We already had a healthy relationship built on trust and
respect. We communicated well. We both strongly believed in what we
were doing. We understood the need to help each other with the
children, keeping the house, and with the business. We planned to allow
for fluctuations in income to keep stresses over money to a minimum.
Yet I still wasn’t prepared.
For anyone considering working with your spouse, here are 3 Essential
Boundaries for Entrepreneurial Couples to help to ease your transition:
1. Clarify expectations for work/home.
Nothing can prepare you for the blurring of boundaries and turf that
occur as you transition into working together. When you join together
with your spouse, most likely, both of you have experienced success
throughout your careers, and have developed your own working style.
Suddenly you have a whole new dynamic in your relationship with your
spouse you must learn to work through. I always knew that we had
different gifts and talents: Terry is very techie and he loves to
write, and I am a people person who is an administrative whiz. Even
though I should have probably seen it coming, I was still surprised at
the difference in our work styles. I multi-task all day long, and he
prefers to work on one project at a time. Just like being newlyweds all
over again, we had to put some effort into getting to know each other on
a whole new level to be able to work well together.
Beth Butler, creator of the Boca Beth Program has some helpful tips for
clarifying expectations with your spouse. “I make us lunch each day and
we try to talk about BOCA BETH items that are pressing. It's our time
to reconnect - he works from home for the wine company he represents and
I work from home sharing my passion for second language learning with
young children. A funny mix, but it works! We talk about what each of
us has planned the next day so there are no surprises - and I use that
time to ask for his help. I can't expect him to guess what I need so I
have learned to be very specific.”
2. Schedule time for love.
Most entrepreneurial couples complain they have less time together than
before. It is possible to work beside your spouse in the same office
all day long and barely speak on a personal level. How difficult is it
to turn off your cell phone and talk a walk with your love? It is
imperative to make it a point to schedule time for your relationship so
that the business does not overtake it. Terry and I plan ahead to sneak
away for lunch or to take a break at Starbucks. We have found if we
don’t take the time to schedule in these lunch or coffee dates, then
they are less likely to happen as we work to meet deadlines or get a
project done. We haven’t yet been able to master scheduling “regular
dates”, but its next on our list of priorities in order to help keep our
close relationship.
3. Schedule time for yourself.
It can be a shock when you suddenly have so much time with your spouse.
In your previous life, they left at 7 AM and came home at 6 PM, and then
you discussed your day during dinner. Now you spend most (if not all)
of the day with them, and during dinner, there is nothing new to
discuss. Where is the time for you? Karyn Fagan, Founder of Team
Women, tells “We both have hobbies that we love outside of the house so
we have that important away time.”
Terry and I certainly have a long way to go as an Entrepreneurial
Couple, but we have made it through our entrepreneurial “honeymoon”
period. Each day, we work together to reach our goals and dreams. We
understand when we help each other we will reach our dreams sooner, so
we help each wherever its needed!
By Terilee Harrison
The Business Mom, is Mom to Jackie (12) and Cole
(4). The Business Mom is helping mom entrepreneurs to “get a life” as
they juggle running their business and raising their family. For free
articles and to learn how you can contribute to Terilee’s upcoming book,
The Business Mom Guide Book: More Life, Less Overwhelm for Mom
Entrepreneurs (Wyatt-MacKenzie, Sept. 2006), please visit
http://www.thebusinessmom.com.
Related Books
Keywords and misspellings: bussiness bussines
|
RSS Home Business Feed
