Partners at Home and at Work

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

More than 47 percent of all small businesses are run by couples. About
80 percent of home-based businesses are run by couples. What are the
problems? What are the solutions? What are the strengths? Can the
personal relationship dissolve and the business continue? What about the
reverse?

The authors, who both have personal experience in the subject, explore
the characteristics of a successful couple-run business through each
stage of the business cycle—development, growth, comfort, and
expansion. At each step there are vignettes, checklists, and practical
analysis of the most frequently encountered issues.

The authors place considerable emphasis on conflict resolution,
different styles of problem solving, and the art of reaching a
compromise. Balance, perspective, mediation, and legal considerations
are covered. As is typical in the Self-Counsel line, the book includes a
do-it-yourself component. In this case, it is a set of seven worksheets
to help the reader analyze his or her own attitudes, aptitudes, and
skills in relation to the challenge of running a business with a
personal partner.

The book is a quick read, packed with practical observations and
questions that deserve to be discussed at length before personal
partners become business partners.