Husband and wife business partners, can there be true harmony?
Hello BP. As you can very well see by my profile and the discussion topic I've posted here, I am a spanking new member. The discussion I'm going to attempt to induce is one that I'm certain comes as no surprise to many of you. In fact, I suspect that it may very well already be an existing topic somewhere here in BP world and I just haven't searched well enough for it. In any event, I will state my claim and if anyone should feel like participating with some feedback, or refer me to an existing forum or post, I'd greatly appreciate either.
I'll begin by first establishing that my fiance and I have a very healthy relationship. Although we have had many our fair share of occasions where we simply had to agree to disagree on various issues, we always find some middle ground. Secondly, after 2+ years of "talking about flipping houses"we have finally decided to purchase a property in the next few months.
The issue regarding harmony, or the seeming (and hopefully temporary) lack thereof, came about when we began to define our criteria for our first deal. I became aware that she has some pretty romantic ideas about our joint venture and seems to be somewhat more emotionally invested. I, on the other hand believe my perspective is much more strategically calculated and financially analytical. What prompts me to believe we have somewhat different concepts is that she recently stated, "I feel like this whole thing is just about the money to you. You seem to want to contract everything out and get in and out as quickly as possible. What about us working together with our hands?"
Apparently she was under the impression that our first purchase would be this beautiful single family Victorian we were going to hold and restore to historical grandeur. Meanwhile I was thinking all along to kick things off with a 2-4 family unit with enough cash flow to help keep the wheels in the machine turning. I'll spare you the rest of the details because I've written more than I intended already, so I'll spare you.
My point was meant to provide a little background or context for this question: What are some business tips or advisories you could offer a couple that assume the inherent differences between us and a strictly professional partnership?