Entrepreneurial Couples

This review originally appeared on the Boardroom Couple Blog, book was reviewed by my husband: "This book is a must have book whether you already work with your spouse or are planning to start a business with your better half. It's the type of book you want to keep handy, as an ongoing reference and not just as a one time read. Author Kathy Marshack does a great job at addressing the real challenges entrepreneurial couples face, through a structured approach; first introducing the concepts, then bringing real-life entrepreneurial couple examples from her consulting private practice, and then discussing research studies, recommendations and practical advice relevant to these specific concepts. The author complements this framework with self assessment exercises for the reader to make this book more of an entrepreneur's tool rather than just a read. For example, in the first chapter Entrepreneurial Couples: Who Are They? she helps us discover the different types of individual entrepreneurs and different types of entrepreneurial couples. So, you will get a better understanding of your own and your spouse's entrepreneurial style. For me, this chapter alone was already an eye opener, because although I live it, I had no one define my entrepreneurial style before. Then, in chapter two, Integrating Lives: Laying the Groundwork to Balance Love and Work the author goes on to explain our interactions/dialogs with our environment, spouse, parent, child, home life, work life and so on in terms of dialectal psychology; which basically explains how each element or system in our life is affected by every other element and cannot be fully understood independent of those others. I particularly cherished "The Myth of Separate Domains" in this chapter, and I can tell you that I'm finally at piece that Julie and I do discuss business issues at home or home issues at the office. Before I used to feel guilty, but it finally made sense why this is normal and it is so hard to avoid. All Chapter Titles: 1.Entrepreneurial Couples: Who Are They? 2.Integrating Lives: Laying the Groundwork to Balance Love and Work 3.Communicating with Your Partner: The Nuts and Bolts of How to Talk to Win 4.Life Planning: Steps to Achieve Your Business and Personal Goals 5.Equality or Equity: How to Find Fairness in Your Partnership 6.Women Entrepreneurs: Are They Different from Men? 7.Parenting and Family Life: Rounding Out Your Life Plan 8.Wealth Management: ow to Balance Health and Wealth 9.Personal and Professional Growth: Beyond Problem Solving 10.Stress Management: Taking Care of the Mind-Body-Spirit Connection 11.Constructing a Master Life Plan: How to Be Successful in the Twenty First Century So, as you can see from the chapter titles above, the list of entrepreneurial couple issues addressed in this book is quite comprehensive. So, no matter what phase in the entrepreneurial couple relationship you are in, there are definitely take aways for you that will make reading this book

My wife and I recently opened a home-based business, and were given this book as a gift. As anyone trying to start a business knows, you don't have a lot of free time to sit around reading but with Marshack's book we made the time. Her advice on how to support one another both as business partners and as husband and wife was very helpful. We both reccommend it with enthusiasm!