Wives: It’s Your Turn

What’s it like to be part of a family contracting business? Onsite Installer invites you to share stories of how you contribute, and how you cope with the challenges.

Some years ago I started a book publishing business on the side and asked my wife, Noelle, to be in charge of sales.

She agreed enthusiastically, and so we embarked on the venture together. Unfortunately, there were a few problems with the arrangement. First of all, she had no experience in sales. Second, and far more important, there were times we didn’t agree on what to do and how to do it.

It’s one thing to disagree with your sales director, and quite another to disagree with your spouse. So things got delicate. It’s hard enough at times to keep a marriage on an even keel, and when you add a business to the mix, well ...

So in the end I had to make a choice between the marriage and the business, and that was really no choice at all: I folded up the business.

All this is a way of saying I have at least a little empathy for the many husband-wife teams who run onsite installation businesses together, and for spouses who may feel at times that their partners are more married to the business than to them.

Family matters

After nine years editing this magazine and attending the annual Pumper & Cleaner Environmental Expo International, I know how important wives are to installation and design businesses. (Yes, some companies are owned and run by women, but in the vast majority of cases, it’s the husband on the front line.)

Wives play a variety of roles: keeping the books, answering phones, screening job applicants, fielding customer complaints, selling jobs, negotiating purchases, dispatching — everything right up to and including work in the field. Yet (I must admit this), our stories often understate their contributions.

So wives, now it’s your turn. We’d like to tell Onsite Installer readers about the joys, struggles, satisfactions and frustrations of being part of a family business — even if not as a day-to-day participant but as a support system back home. We’d like to know:

• How do you balance work life with leisure time?

• How do you make sure you invest enough time with the kids?

• How often do you get away from the business and enjoy focused family time?

• What happens when you and your husband disagree on an important business decision?

• How do you keep issues at work from spilling over into the household?

• What is the greatest part of owning and running a family business?

• What is the hardest part?

Learning from each other

Using information you provide, we will develop articles about the personal side of being a partner in a company as well as a marriage. By sharing your experiences, you’ll help other family business owners, such as those you meet each year at the Expo, to deal with the challenges they face.

Just send your thoughts and ideas to me at editor@onsiteinstaller.com. Or if you prefer, give me a call toll free at 877/953-3301. We look forward to starting some lively exchanges about how to mix business and family — happily and successfully.

In the meantime, plan to attend the special Women in the Industry seminar at the 2010 Pumper & Cleaner Expo in Louisville. It’s a chance for women from all sides of the environmental service industry to come together, learn about issues they have in common, share ideas, and get acquainted.

Guest speaker Ann Fry will talk about, “The Regeneration Process: How to Re-energize, Re-purpose, Re-invent and Handle Everything!” Fry is an author, professional speaker, executive coach and corporate culture consultant who helps people connect to their passions and dreams. The event, on Thursday, Feb. 25, will be followed by a wine and cheese tasting.



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