I'm Riskier Than My Business Partner!

Q: Even though we run our business together, my husband doesn't support my financial decision making and risk taking. That's a big problem if we're going to take our business to the next level. What can I do to get us on the same page?

A: No different from your marriage, clear and open communication is the key to building a successful business relationship with your spouse. While this doesn't necessarily mean you need to make every decision jointly, couples that have built businesses together say it's important to develop a growth plan together and to clearly delineate roles and responsibilities.

For instance, if you're Ms. Outside, making the sales and delivering the service, your husband should be Mr. Inside, keeping the books, doing the tech support and dealing with customers. Each spouse should have a fair amount of autonomy in making decisions over the activities that he or she is responsible for. Of course, this doesn't guarantee that you and your husband will always see eye-to-eye on big-ticket issues like borrowing money, renting larger office space or investing in a new computer system.

That's why it's important to understand each other's communication styles and to find ways to resolve disputes that don't involve screaming or sulking, says Sanjyot Dunung, who runs Atma Global, a New York City education content developer and packager, with her husband. "You're more likely to support each other's decisions if you can both clearly see the process that led to those decisions over time," Dunung says.