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  Ian Street January 17, 2014 at 10:48am

  Communicate! My wife does the bookwork, and I do the designs, quotes, invoices and site work. (We have two young kids too, so the wife hasn't the time to do more). The biggest issue I ever had was not knowing how the business was running financially. Whether a job went as the quoted, made more profit or broke even. This can lead to a really big downfall. You always need to know where you make, where you lose and where you break even, so that you can adjust pricing accordingly. My wife now produces contract breakdowns when a job has been completed and paid for, (supplier invoices), so I can, at a glance, assess the job to the quote.
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  Ed Fairman January 17, 2014 at 9:34pm

  I couldn't run my business without my spouse! She does all the books. Makes sure tax is paid on time and is always the level headed voice of reason.

  I would say keeping the business going keeps us and our children together.
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  Matt Johnson January 18, 2014 at 7:40am

  My girlfriend wants to come on board once my business is big enough to sustain the out goings etc. I'm undecided. these replies are helping me with my decision thank you
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  Thermo January 18, 2014 at 9:19pm

  im lucky. my wife is an accountant with her own business working from home so she deals with all the books, paying suppliers, payroll etc. I deal with the rest of it. I have to say that away from the accounts side of things she doesn't really have a great clue about the business, but in some ways its good. it allows her to give a different perspective on ideas or problems, although she has taken a long time to get her head around the cash flow patterns for a business that is season and weather dependent.....but then she is an accountant!
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  Cesare Harradine January 19, 2014 at 10:48am

  My wife and I work very well together. It's the married bit that's a pain! Just kidding.
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  Ed Fairman January 19, 2014 at 11:10am

  It would be nice to get a woman's perspective here??
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  Neil Petrie BSc Landscape Mgt January 19, 2014 at 10:30pm

  My wife does the tax, vat, invoicing, answers the phone, relays messages to me out and about, deals with insurances when they're due, pays suppliers and wages, among other things.
  However, we have a 9 month old child so she's just coming out of her "maternity leave"!!! The office is 5 paces from the kitchen...!!
  We work we'll as a team but, as has been said, you need to be aware of strengths and weaknesses. Even
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  Phil Voice January 20, 2014 at 7:43am

  Yes, it would Ed.

  Would your wife like to write a guest post?
  
  Ed Fairman said:

  It would be nice to get a woman's perspective here??
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  Oli @ Legendary Landscapes January 20, 2014 at 5:16pm

  Great thread. I'm getting to the point with my business that keeping on top of all the admin myself as well as running a site etc is getting too much for one person. Getting back from work to then fire up the laptop to do quotes/invoices/designs of an evening till late can be really demoralising and means I'm knackered the next day also, hence we've decided that with a baby on the way and due in may, the timing will be great to bring my partner in to the business so she can run the fort from home and take a little of the pressure off. I expect it to be cute a learning curve for her but really believe we'll make a great partnership combining both our skills/qualities, i'm really looking forward to see if it grows the business further as well give us some more very valuable quality time as a family... As mentioned previously, would be great to read from a spouse's perspective of their arrangement.
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  Ed Fairman January 20, 2014 at 5:48pm

  
  
  Phil Voice said:

  Yes, it would Ed.

  Would your wife like to write a guest post?
  
  Ed Fairman said:

  It would be nice to get a woman's perspective here??

  I will ask my wife if she will do a guest post. I hope I don't find out I've been kidding myself all this time haha.