Marshack examines the traps these couples can fall into and offers practical advice for dealing with them. For example, entrepreneurial couples with a full family life have greater potential for communication breakdown and interpersonal problems than do other couples. They often fail to confront issues head on, instead relying on compromise and other avoidance techniques to ward off conflict. “Decisions arrived at through compromise usually lack creativity and seldom last,” says the author. “It may be fine to compromise about choosing a restaurant for dinner, but compromising about your business can sabotage your competitive edge.” Trying to keep family and business issues separate is just not realistic, according to Marshack.

To be successful as an entrepreneurial couple requires planning a life–a life that includes your personal and relationship goals as well as your career and business goals. Entrepreneurial Couples shows how to assess each area of your life and offers tips and twelve different exercises for brainstorming, creating contingency plans, achieving flexibility, and developing a successful life and business plan with your partner.

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In praise of Entrepreneurial Couples

“A thoughtful book analyzes the types and styles of couple in business together.” — Family Business, June-August 1998

“By emphasizing private and professional life equally, … offers not only guidance, but also a recipe for success, domestically and professionally.” — Midwest Book Review, September 1998

“Provides tools to wield. Valuable insights.” — Booklist, May 1, 1998

“Entrepreneurial Couples helps the reader understand why problems arise as couples work together and provides useful guidelines for solving them. This book is a must read for any couple who are in business together.”— W. Gibb Dyer, Jr., Ph.D., O. Leslie Stone Professor Entrepreneurship, Marriott School of Management, Brigham Young University

“We wish we had had this information thirty years ago when we started our business! We enjoyed the case histories of the people in the book and identified with many of the situations they faced.”— Tom and Linda Denchel, co-owners, Tom Denchel Ford Country

“This is one of the first books to tackle the increasingly relevant theme of entrepreneurial couples. All working couples can find something useful in this book to improve the quality of their relationships and increase their productivity in the workplace.” — Kjell Rudestam, Ph.D., Associate Dean, The Fielding Institute

“We found Entrepreneurial Couples insightful and encouraging as we celebrated the first anniversary of our decision to turn passion to purpose by becoming the owner, manager, marketing director, and primary staff of our own business.” — Jon and Kathy Kolstad, Personal Trust Service