Since 2004, my wife Sonja and I have worked together at Motionbuzz.com. The practice of working with one’s spouse isn’t revolutionary. Family farms and Mom-and-Pop businesses are the cornerstones of the American Dream. However, this arrangement still requires patience for newly indoctrinated spousal business partners.
Our business partnership wasn’t really planned. Prior to having our first baby, Sonja worked as an office manager. I had been in business since 2000, but I was still wearing all of the hats. One of my biggest weaknesses was keeping up with the books, invoicing clients, and dealing with taxes—important parts of any business. Sonja made me a proposition: she would manage all of the hateful paperwork if she could quit her job and stay at home with the baby. Losing her steady paycheck and health benefits gave me heartburn for a few months, but we were committed to our new plan.
I’m not saying it was easy, but we made it work. We’ve increased revenue each year, landed some great new clients, and expanded into new markets. On the home front, we’ve kept a very cozy work-life balance. We even found time to pop out another kid. Our office is a short drive (or bike ride) from our home, we keep our overhead low, and we just try to KISS as much as possible.
Sonja and I read an article in Business 2.0 a few years ago about how “startup couples blend business and pleasure.” It included insights from the co-founders of Six Apart, Flickr and Bebo. It’s still an interesting and relevant read for aspiring husband-and-wife internet entrepreneurs.
In between client projects, we’ve been working on ideas for our own web communities, eCommerce stores, and web apps. Our goal is to launch one or two of our own sites this year. As part of my market research, I spend time each day reading industry blogs, magazines, and social media feeds. There are so many talented people doing so many cool things!
