Yin & Yang
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As many of you know, my husband is my business partner. Often times people ask me how we work together, live together, raise children together and still manage to be in love with each other after eight years of spending almost 100% of our time together.
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Our secret is simple. We have always been two halves of one whole who complement rather than compete with each other. Where JP is analytical, I am creative. Where JP is emotional, I am calm and vice versa. My specialty is displaying the merchandise and JP is amazing at selling it. I think about the big picture, JP makes it all happen. Our roles are clearly defined by each of our strengths and we know when to yield to each other.
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And over thirty years, we've built up a level of trust and respect for each other that very few founders and CFOs share. Trust that comes from successes and failures in the private moments as well as the public forum. After raising three children together, anything that comes up in the day to day running of the business is a piece of cake.
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Occasionally we have an embarrassing spat in front of the team, or one of us stands his|her ground longer than necessary just because the other forgot to empty the dishwasher that morning. Often we contradict each other. Sometimes we just want to fire each other.
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But when we have a big accomplishment or success, we share it. And when we have a failure or a setback, we bond together to fix it. And we take great pride in each other's accomplishments. The night before we opened our second store, after a somewhat stressful sprint to the finish, we climbed into bed, held hands and said in unison "we did it."
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To make your life partner your business partner is a risky move. But for us it works. Our entire life together has been a labor of love and starting a business together is no exception. We don't agree on everything be we always agree on the most important thing: there are no two people better suited to doing what we do together every day.