Inside Small Business | Small Business & Home Business Marketing

I just started my small business - is PR something I should be thinking about now or put on hold?

It’s never too early to think about PR – your reputation and image is something that starts as soon as the business does. Your image and reputation will also need time to grow; there is no such thing as an overnight success. In most cases, the earlier you start the better because it’s very difficult to get attention from the media if you seem to have come out of nowhere. Cultivating those relationships and developing the bedrock of a PR plan in the early stages will greatly help you when you have significant news to share.

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Keeping it in the Family

John R. Ingrisano

It can be tough having to deal with a partner in business. It can be even tougher when that partner is your spouse. The result can be pure craziness or total bliss. It all depends on whether you take the time to carefully structure your business relationship.

There are distinct drawbacks to husbands and wives working together. The biggest is that trouble at home can easily spill over into the business, eventually, resulting in failure and the loss of jobs and money. Worse, if the couple splits, the business generally becomes a pawn in the “great divide” known as divorce. That’s because it’s often the single greatest asset in the marriage. In this respect, working together can be a detriment to both the business and to the marriage.

Still, the benefits can far outweigh the potential disadvantages. Couples who know how to work closely together share a unique dedication and loyalty to their business’s success. And let’s face it, it’s also fun to be able to work shoulder to shoulder every day with your life partner in a common purpose. That’s why, best of all, husbands and wives who are successful in business together tend to enjoy peace and harmony in their personal lives as well.

If you’re part of a husband and wife business partnership, here are a few suggestions to help ensure that both the business and the marriage continue to prosper:

• Divvy up responsibilities. Maintain clear and separate areas of responsibility. Write down job descriptions. Then leave each other alone. Perhaps she heads up marketing and sales, while he focuses on product development. This division of labor is crucial for maintaining the working relationship. Otherwise, you will literally be stepping all over each other. It will only be a matter of time before problems develop and resentments build.

• Keep your personal lives out of the conference room. Conduct yourselves professionally at all times while on company time. Public displays of affection, personal conversations or other signs of intimacy can embarrass and alienate other workers. Worse, they can disrupt the smooth flow of business.

• Keep business out of the bedroom, or anywhere else in the house, for that matter. If you are so busy all day that you don’t have much time to talk about business, take half an hour or so after hours to catch up, unwind together and make the transition from business partners to marriage partners. Then put business away for the day. The idea is to strike a healthy balance between your business life and your personal life.

• Get away with each other. Plan work-free vacations and get-away weekends so you don’t ever forget that you’re much more than business partners.

• Get away from each other. It’s unrealistic to believe that you can be side by side 24 hours a day and still maintain a healthy outlook and attitude. Develop outside interests in things that belong strictly to you.

• Capitalize on the benefits of being in business together. Maybe one of you works just 20 hours a week or splits hours between home and the business. As business owners, you have the luxury of setting your own hours and planning your own schedules.

The bottom line: If you and your spouse are in business together, you know that it is both challenging and invigorating. By carrying out the above suggestions, you can make it even more rewarding. You may even have fun together.

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