Relationship Advice - Married Couples Working Together
Relationship Tips For Spouses Who Go Into Business Together.
Relationship Advice Expert April Masini
Advice Seeker: Dear April Masini,
My husband and I are attempting to start our own business. While this is extremely exciting, I'm also a bit worried about the affect that it will have on our marriage. It's going to be stressful in the beginning phases of our business and I don't want the stress to come home with us and make our household tense. Do you have any advice or tips on how we can successfully work together and build our business, but keep also keep our relationship as strong as possible?
Sincerely,
Just the Two of Us
April Masini's advice:
Dear Just the Two of Us,
Ironically, the trick to husbands and wives working together is to have good boundaries.
There are very few married couples who can live and work together without having problems. In fact, family businesses are notorious for success or failure, but little in between.
Here are some relationship tips that will help spouses who go into business together:* Safe time. Have a specific time each day where business is not discussed. If you don’t have this, you may both be walking around on eggshells in the house just waiting for one or the other of you to spring some business talk when you’re trying to decompress and relax. At least you’ll know, this way, that from, for instance, 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., there’s no business talk.
* Safe place. Have a specific room in the house where business is not discussed. I suggest you make it the bedroom and the bathroom. There’s nothing like work to kill your sex life, or even make your morning shower incredibly tense if your spouse is trying to talk business with you in the same shower with you — or through the glass window or shower curtain.
* Don’t be afraid to treat your spouse the same way you would another co-worker. If you have something important or something that you know my evoke emotions, and it has to do with business, ask your spouse if you can meet at a coffee shop at a particular time to have a quick or long meeting. Taking the business out of your house allows for boundary and a cool down time — whether it’s together at the meeting or on the drive/s home or if one of you needs to be alone or go to the gym on the way home.
*Make sure you still act like a married couple when you're not working. Go on dates with each other! Check out my book, Romantic Date Ideas, for some hot date ideas you can enjoy.
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Dating Advice for Women, Dating Tips for Guys, Ideas for a Fun Date, Romantic Date Ideas, Better Sex, Kissing Tips
April Masini -- nicknamed "the new millennium's Dear Abby" by the media, is author of the best-selling books Date Out Of Your League and Think & Date Like A Man, the two (just released) step-by-step dating and relationship manuals, Ideas for a Fun Date and Romantic Date Ideas, and the critically acclaimed dating and relationship online magazine www.AskApril.com.
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