5 questions to ask your spouse before starting a firm

When you are working with a friend or spouse, there's every possibility of your business and personal relationship getting adversely impacted if something goes wrong between two partners, warns Archana Khosla.

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Your business and married lives are bound to cross paths if both of you, as a couple, have decided to become entrepreneurs.

The decision to take the joint-entrepreneurial plunge is a great decision, as you will be working with someone on whom you have unwavering trust.

However, on the flip side, there's every possibility of your business and personal relationship getting adversely impacted if something goes wrong between the two of you.

The journey of entrepreneurship is not a smooth ride and there will be confrontations and exchanges of opinion as both of you are investing your time, money and emotions into your business.

If you take a call on some areas where collisions of thoughts are highly likely, life as an entrepreneur and as a couple will be less complicated.

1. Do you truly complement each other?

Before setting out for the journey, you need to assess your compatibility level with your spouse carefully.

You should revisit the experiences of handling various personal crisis together.

Were those collaborations confrontational or amiable?

That tone of relationship is likely to creep into your work-related discussion as well. So, it’s better to have a reality-check in the beginning and work accordingly.

2. Who'll do what job?

It's important to have clarity who'll assume what role.

One can look after the day-to-day operations and the other partner can focus on business expansion.

To avoid possibilities of overstepping, you should define the roles in the company and trust each other’s abilities. The leap of faith has to be there.

3. Are you open to outsider’s opinion?

It’s a fact that you know your job well. But, sometimes, you tend to gloss over things which go on to become a huge bone of contention.

Although both of you have it in you to steer your business in the right direction, discussing ideas with trusted friends always helps.

You never know, a new perspective may come up from such idea-exchanges which can take your business to a greater height. So, while embarking on the journey, let yourself open to third-party scrutiny.

4. Are you both aligned in terms of the goals and expectations?

It is important to chart out time to discuss each of your thought processes, goals and expectations from the venture.

Based on the thought, it may be prudent to also discuss and review the business plan to identify and analyse areas that may impact your personal life and accordingly set some ground rules around how the business decisions should be made in a manner which involves minimalistic or no stress in your marriage.

5. Are you ready to be transparent while managing money?

Money drives business and it also spurs discord.

So, it’s always advisable to plan how to invest money in the business jointly.

There are ample instances of relationship becoming strained due to disagreements on financial matters. So, you need to address that part immediately.

There is a joy of developing an idea into a successful business together.

It’s one of the most rewarding experiences one can ever have. But to enjoy that experience to the fullest and make the collaboration work, streamlining some thoughts is extremely crucial.