But when I tell them I work from home with my husband…….they are so horrified!

The usual comments range from “we would kill each other in less than a week” to “why not just get the divorce now and save the time?”……but the truth is we have been working side by side now for almost 8 years, and we actually still enjoy it!

Bob and I spent years on the road in outside sales before we met and married, so staying home and actually being able to enjoy our home is a new treat for us both. Bob is 64, and I am 54 (soon 55….) and we love living a life that lets us ignore the alarm clock, enjoy the morning routine of coffee and paper on the deck, and in general, just simply enjoy life!

Still, we have learned a few tips to working with your spouse that might come in handy if you and your partner are considering a work from home venture:

1) Schedule regular meetings during the week, or even daily over morning coffee to discuss projects, goals and tasks. Be specific in descriptions!

2) Assign the tasks to a specific person – don’t just expect your partner to know what needs to be done – don’t assume that because you are living under the same roof that your partner can read your mind

3) Don’t keep asking your partner for “updates” all day – trust your partner to get done whatever is on her/his agenda……at least until he or she proves that they need to be nagged

4) Know your strengths, your skill sets, your individual knowledgebases and make use of them! If you are better at techie stuff – you handle the web site – don’t force your partner to take on tasks that are uncomfortable for them early in the game. Ease into the new things – as time goes on and you both become more adept at things – tackling new challenges (such as learning to install that new database!) becomes fun…..not daunting!

5) Don’t critique unless asked and never criticize. Make gentle suggestions, re-write and re-work together – you both have great ideas and you both have the same goal – to run a successful business and to have the best possible life together – so remember that when you think you need to make a negative statement about your partner’s work.

This is the person you want to go to bed with tonight – gentle persuasion goes a lot farther than harsh criticism!! Working at home with your partner or spouse is a wonderful way to live!!

Related posts:

1. 5 Tips To Working At Home With Your Spouse Successfully! Working at home is fun and trust me – my...
2. How To Find Time To Work Your Business Most of us start our home business while we are...
3. Who Are We… And Why Should You Care? Okay – fair enough question! First of all – that...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

But if you are working at home with your spouse, then, some guidelines are important to make sure that you have some “divided” time between work and play.

1) Date nights are important for all couples – but even more so when you work at home together. Find time to enjoy each other without discussing business!

2) Make sure you schedule in exercise during the daily routine. This is especially important if you are running an online business – it’s easy for the hours to fly by while sitting in front of the computer – exercising brain cells IS important but you need to keep the rest of the body in motion as well!

3) Share household duties. Working at home means that you are BOTH there and should both be able to dive in and do laundry or cook a meal. This might sound trivial but I am amazed at the number of couples that fight over who should vacuum…get over it! You are now working from home – it’s untraditional…..get over the rest of the “traditions” and share ALL of the responsibilities!

4) It’s okay for you each to have your own home based business – some work at home ideas for women will not necessarily be especially appealing to the men in their lives, and that is okay! Work at home couples are not necessarily joined at the hip – you can still work at home in relative bliss – each on your own project!

5) Keep each updated on the business. Either half of a couple should be at least knowledgeable enough about the what the other is doing that you can at least “cover” for a bit if needed, due to illness, other committments, etc. being able to “cover does not mean that you need to be able to perform your partner’s specific duties just as well as he/she does – but you should have at least enough knowledge that you can temporarily either take over these tasks or outsource them until the situation is back to normal.

More tips coming from Bob and Melody, The Work At Home Couple!Post A Comment!

Related posts:

1. Work At Home Couples – 5 Survival Tips! !When I first tell people that I work from home...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.