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When we decided to embark on the entrepreneurial adventure by creating EIGO, we knew that it would not always be easy. As a couple, we wanted to keep our relationship strong while pursuing our professional dreams. To ensure our success, we've established a few ground rules - and signed a contract! In this article, we share our tips to help other entrepreneurial couples juggle love and business.
5 tips to succeed as a couple
Here are some tips that we have put in place to launch and develop our business as a couple:
1. Clarifying roles and responsibilities
Harnessing unique strengths - Like on a sports team, everyone has their own position. Identifying each other's strengths allows for harmonious collaboration without stepping on each other's toes. With us, it is clear. Gen avoids accidents, and Matthieu has become a first-aid kit pro.
Learning to delegate - Trusting your partner in your areas of responsibility is essential for effective cooperation (See previous point).
Deciding together - Important decisions must be taken together, thus ensuring balance and a shared vision within the couple. For example: we decided “together” to go to the hospital before Gen's wounds got infected.
2. Focus on transparent communication
Set up regular appointments - Organizing dedicated moments to discuss goals and challenges is fundamental to aligning your strategies and addressing problems. Do we plan our days for breakfast: work or chase waterfalls?
Express your ideas freely - It is important to communicate your thoughts and concerns openly, thus promoting the strengthening of the common project. Pro tip: in case of semi-transparent toilets, establish a code of conduct for “big commissions”. We ask the other person to go outside for a walk.
3. Establishing healthy boundaries
Separate spaces - Working on the couch? Tempting, but having an office is better. Working in a dedicated place helps to separate professional and personal spheres, improving concentration and maintaining the quality of life as a couple. We are the deckchair next to the pool.
Cherish moments for two - It is vital to devote exclusive moments to your life as a couple, without letting professional concerns creep in. Head to the pool at sunset every day for an underwater headstand competition.
4. Anticipating and Managing Conflicts
Harmonizing goals - Ensuring that your professional and personal goals are aligned from the start can prevent future disagreements. Ours: working in a paradisiacal place 2 hours a day ✅.
Have a plan B (C and D) - Discussing the “what ifs”, such as a possible entrepreneurial failure or the desire for a change of direction by one of the partners, can avoid many unpleasant surprises. If it's too hot, you work in bed with the AC on.
Finding solutions, not culprits - Focus on finding solutions rather than attributing faults. The aim is to overcome obstacles together. We didn't try to understand why Gen fell off the scooter, we just speculated on the number of stitches (the answer is 12) and improvised a bandage with what we had.
Recourse to mediation - In case of persistent disagreement, the intervention of a neutral third party can be beneficial in finding a compromise. When we need it, Chat GPT Premium will be our best ally.
5. Supporting Each Other
To be the pillar of the other - Entrepreneurship is an emotional roller coaster. Supporting each other means being the balance point in ups and downs. This is also the case when you are ripped off by the taxi mafia in Indonesia.
Celebrating victories - Recognizing and celebrating every success, even the smallest, is essential to boost motivation and consolidate your union. We took solace in congratulating ourselves on having negotiated a 30% discount with the taxi mafia.
We don't always respect all our rules, but in the end, the important thing is to move forward together and to know that the other person is doing everything possible to make it work. The final tip? Take everything to the next level and adapt.
