We are a husband and wife team working together. People ask, how do we do it? Living together and running a business? It helps that we are best friends, but here are our tips for managing the “marriage” of our lives.
- Respect One Another: We respect each other personally and professionally. Even when we don’t agree, we talk it out until we come to a compromise. We are both Id’s on the DiSC profile (My previous background is in HR and yes, I made my husband take the DiSC assessment), which means we both have strong personalities and opinions. While this could lead to conflict in many situations, we try to stay balanced, level-headed and reasonable.
- Trust Each Other: We trust each other implicitly and have each other’s best interest at heart. We have also agreed not to fire one another, which gives us more job security than either has previously had.
- Create Clearly Defined Roles: After 20 years in the NYC advertising industry George is the clear creative lead, but he often relies on me for direction and interpretation of the client’s wants/needs. I oversee the business aspect of running a business, such as client communication, estimates, invoicing, accounting and legal/tax filings.
- Maintain Separate Interests: George is a constant creative. He is a singer/songwriter and is often found in his recording studio or writing lyrics when not working on a Creative Butter project. He is also an award-winning screenwriter and is usually working on several writing projects at any given time. I am an avid reader and novice gardener. I am also the ‘social director’ of our relationship and run several committees as well as volunteer for a number of philanthropies.
- Take Time to Play: We always take time out to play. Whether it is hiking with Buttercup, our Golden Retriever, heading down the street to the beach or heading out on the town with friends, we always make an effort to balance work with “life.” At the same time, we feel very fortunate to do work that we love for clients we respect so that it never feels like a struggle. It also helps that we live in Santa Barbara and can work outside all year round…often in the backyard with a pup at our feet.
