Tips For Efficiently Running a Business with Your Spouse

Hey Friend!

Let’s talk about running a business with a spouse or a partner!

This is important in your business as well as your home. We will dive into all things communication, calendars, and working well together while you find that work-life balance.

Stephen and Chelsey from The Rainmaker Family are sharing their tips and systems, to help make running a business as a couple, efficient and fun.

Running a Business with a Spouse with Chelsey and Stephen

Stef: Welcome to the podcast Stephen and Chelsey! Tell us about you and The Rainmaker Family.

Chelsey: Thank you! We are founders of the Rainmaker Family, but before that, we were wedding photographers. We were hustling a lot and trading time for money. It was that place of wanting to make more money, but we didn’t have more time to give because we wanted to start a family. It felt like we were in this career where we were going to burn ourselves out because we were working all the time. During that season, we decided we were going to explore other income opportunities and we stumbled upon what we teach now, which is launching brands on Amazon. We’ve been so successful, we were able to retire from the wedding industry and do Rainmaker Family full-time.

Stef: That’s amazing! How did you know you wanted to work together?

Deciding to Work With A Spouse

Stephen: We fell into it. We did long distance for a while during college, and we were looking for ways to spend more time together, so we decided to work at a summer camp together. That’s when we started to realize that we liked doing things together. Then, we stepped into the photography business together naturally. We say there was fruit there so we leaned into it.

Stef: So good. You guys have been working together for years, and you’re married, and parenting together. What are some of the pros and cons of that?

Chelsey: I think this is a pro and a con, understanding what each other’s strengths are in the business. We have very different strengths. For example, Stephen is great at systems and I’m good at the heart of leadership and leading teams. Identifying those strengths that make you come alive is so beneficial, and realizing you won’t have the same qualities.

Stephen: Running a business is such a transformational experience, and owning that business together is such a great marriage amplifier. It amplifies things that are good and bad. If you want to build something big and powerful, that’s going to put a lot of pressure on your foundation, and we work to make sure our foundation is strong.

Stef: I think that’s the truth of how to make any partnership fruitful. Like Chelsey mentioned, it’s important to identify strengths and have mentors behind the scenes. Sometimes, couples will focus too much on the business side and not enough on the marriage.

Stephen: It’s fun to share the business as a calling and that’s a huge pro. If I had to pick a con I’d say that if you are the person who likes to turn off work, that’s harder because two people in the house are in it. So you have to build healthy boundaries.

Starting the Rainmaker Family Company

Stef: How did you guys get started with the Rainmaker Family? How did you get that big breakthrough and know it was right?

Chelsey: When we were doing the wedding photography stuff, we decided we wanted to try a physical product, and as Stephen was researching all the things, he found that Amazon would do all the behind-the- scenes work for you.

Stephen: We were in this season of looking at all the side hustles and watching all the webinars and all the options. We needed to find something that wouldn’t take more time and create more stress. At one point, we had about eight little businesses that were doing ok, but not producing a lot of fruit. We had a big heart check where we realized we were overextended. We trimmed what wasn’t working, and decided to stick with the wedding business and our Amazon store, because the Amazon store didn’t require much of our time and it created leverage and made us money.

Stef: That’s a really great strategy. So many entrepreneurs are doing all the options instead of finding “the thing.” Once we figure out the “thing” then we can figure out the method. In my business, I teach people to use podcasting to support the “what” they’ve already decided on. You guys also have some amazing calendar hacks. Can we dive into that?

Calendar Hacks For Running a Business with a Spouse

Chelsey: We have three things we do each week that have significantly improved our business and our life. The first one is creating a dream week. I had to think about the things that lift me and feel like a win. I had to identify patterns that would create my dream week, and implement them into your week first, and then add in the business portion.

Stephen: Our number two thing is switching tasks. It can take 15-45 minutes for your mind to adjust to switching the type of brain work from task to task, and this is where overwhelm can sit in. If you make your days themed where you are working in one modality like just admin, or just momming, then that helps you feel less overwhelmed and overstimulated.

Chelsey: Our number three is having a family meeting. We pick a specific time to sit down and have a conversation and look at our calendar together. This can be business and personal. This way, we aren’t talking about work and schedules every single day. I love this because it provides accountability and support.

Stef: As a team, we’ve been working on time blocks being on certain days and it’s working so well. I also do a notes dump daily so we can recap in the evening, but I’m going to take your tip and do it at a family meeting.

So to recap tips for efficiently running a business together:

• Establish each other’s strengths and use them accordingly
• Create a dream week (joy first and work second)
• Try to have themes for each day so you aren’t swapping from different tasks
• Have a weekly family meeting

If you are looking for more support on how to run a business, grow your audience, and make consistent money each month, I encourage you to check out my Clarify Your Calling workshop. I’ll help you identify what you were called to do so you can build a successful business around it.

I pray this blesses you!

Xo,

Stef

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