As I meet and interview Couplepreneurs around the country and increasingly across the globe there are many inspirational stories I hear and just how inspiring it is to see them interact. These include the moment they knew they were going to do this together, how they started out, securing funding, feeling blessed to spend time together, defining their roles and much, much more. One of the things I ask them is what one thing would they have liked to have known when starting out. So what are some of those key wishes?
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Getting things off the ground – some fundamentals - some couples would have loved to have received more advise on how to get your company off the ground. Specifically Matthew Ford from Creative Nature shared “there are ways to launch in to a supermarket and that would have been invaluable to have known rather than having to learn everything from scratch”.
The jubilation but the loneliness too – Whilst you are totally committed together and have a shared goal Julianne Ponan, Matthew’s partner at Creative Nature shared how she wasn’t ready for the loneliness. She told me ‘It was very lonely at the beginning. I went from a person who went out most nights before running the business with Matt. I worked in banking before and we often partied at great venues with colleagues who became friends. I moved then to never going out and it was initially very lonely. I lost lots of friends as I didn’t have time to go out and they didn’t understand it and that was very hard to live through”. I am struck by how often people cannot understand how people can work with a life partner.
How and when to seek investment – what are the options – Funding is a minefield for many Couplepreneurs and how to go about it and understand what the various funding routes are. One of the aims of Couplepreneurs - a global community for couple owned businesses to meet, share and inspire their stories and come together to support and be supported through the trusted advisor network within the community – is to answer key questions like this and educate and support couples as they start out and throughout their journies.
Surround yourself by people who are better than you early on - You don’t have to do everything – and you can bring in expertise in bite size chunks. There are so many networks you can join and couples tell me how important it is to recognise the gaps in expertise and bring those in to the business in a cost effective way.
How long it would take to make money – The early years and starting out is full of so much emotion and hard work and it’s all encompassing and hugely rewarding as you share the journey together. Lots of couples have told me that whilst they have a plan and forecast in reality the growth can be very different due to so many factors and it can often take so much longer than the plan to actually start creating a profit in the business.
Other couples who are doing it – are we alone? – Couples do want to hang out with other Couplepreneurs – the one thing they share, irrespective of industry sector or stage of business growth is that as founders they are a couple. So lots of them would have liked to have spoken to others as well as meeting couples along their journey.
Patricia Bacon is an expert business growth consultant and founder of Couplepreneurs a new global network for couples running businesses together. Find out more at www.couplepreneurs.co.uk