'Down with outdated schemes!': 3 family histories where a husband helps his wife’s business grow
'12.06.2019'
Source: Womo
Often, society expects a woman to give up her career aspirations and help her husband develop his business. However, you should not discount those cases (and quite frequent) when a woman’s career has more chances for development. Then a man is faced with a choice: to continue to clutch at his ambitions or help his wife.
The author of the book “Freelance Mom” (The Freelance Mum) and the editor-in-chief of The Early Hour parent platform, journalist Annie Reed, talks about three couples in which a man is pleased with his “supporting role” and has benefited everyone Womo.
One morning, my husband and I discussed our affairs over coffee. Both of us are self-employed workers, like the other 4,8 of a million British. Rich is a documentary filmmaker and construction engineer. But one of his projects was coming to an end and he was thinking about what to do next. He said: “I want to work from home and be more often with children. I don't want to go to 7 in the morning and come back late at night. ” We waited for the third child and he understood that if he takes a new project, he will be constantly busy, and I will have three children, my developing career and all the housework. He would make his documentaries on weekends, and in the evenings he would be editing.
“Why don't you help me in my business? I asked. - Online courses are a promising direction. A little help with marketing and more videos for courses - how do you like that? "
All morning, my husband thought about the proposal and decided that it made sense. having completed his projects, he began working with me from the next month. Thus, both of us were able to work part-time from home, earn good money and spend enough time with the children. Children, career and household chores - everything could be divided, and even we were interchangeable "if that". It turned out that this wonderful scheme did not occur to us alone: among the acquaintances were couples in which the father of the family gave up his career to help develop his wife's business.
Sarah and Jason Aquisombe: Interior Design and Business Strategy
When their daughter was four years old, Jason worked three days a week, doing a baby the rest of the time, and Sarah raised her business. They decided that it would be more profitable for him to invest his working time in the development of her business than to work for someone else.
“We always dreamed of working together, we wanted freedom and the lifestyle that she opens up: to make our own decisions and not be tied to any particular place and schedule,” explains Sarah. "This is an outdated scheme, it does not work for those who have children."
Jason worked in an insurance company.
“He is very organized, very rational, and I am a creative thinker of global proportions. He avoids risky actions, and I jump headlong into adventures. I really needed his attention to detail and accuracy in execution. Jason is also a great extrovert and does an excellent job with clients, but I prefer to work at a laptop rather than go to an event. So he supports me, and I support him. ”
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Since they have been working together, Sarah has noticed that she has more time to concentrate on the part of the business that she likes and succeeds.
“I had to spend so much time working with documents, bills, administration, contracts, technical issues - it killed my work. And now I can safely be the “face of the brand” and the real creator of a unique product. Although sometimes it was not easy to “let go of control.” Yes, now I don’t have 100 percent control, but then we have that work-life balance we dreamed of. ”
Frita and Tom Quinn: lifestyle bloggers
Frita has been working in freelancing since her first child appeared with her and Tom. She managed to continue working with the child in her arms for the first 6 months, and then everything became so complicated that the question of helping to care for the baby became an edge: too little time was left to keep the online store and blog.
“We first thought that Tom would switch to an 4-day work week. One day he will be engaged in the son and will give me the opportunity to work fruitfully. He worked at the university and had a flexible schedule, although minus one day still affected salaries. ”
Two years later, the couple was already waiting for the second child, and then the law on joint parental leave was issued. Shop Friti slowed sales, but the blog content began to scatter across the network. Therefore, Tom went on childcare leave for 6 months and this saved the situation.
“I understood that this was a turning point: at last we lived as it was convenient and beneficial for all - us, the children, the business.”
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A year later, they decided that Tom would leave his job altogether so that Frita would be thoroughly involved in business.
“We realized that it’s more profitable for us to lose Tom’s salary for money than to pay a lot of money for kindergarten. Moreover, our dad is better than any educator. ”
Tom also reliably insures every aspect of the business: from the generation of ideas to photographs and the work of the account administrator. In the past two years, the pair's income has tripled.
Of course, there were problems: “At first it was very unusual for me to work when Tom and the children were at home all the time. I used to work in silence: husband at work, children in kindergarten. But then we worked out the daily routine and everything fell into place. ”
Lucy Werner and Adrian Chatelet: Consulting for Startups
Lucy and Adrian met through work.
“In the office we sat opposite each other, I just started my own business and we often discussed what could be useful to each other.”
The couple started dating, after some time they had a baby. Adrian took leave to care for the baby, but when he returned to full-time work, it became clear that there was no time for the family, and Lucy with a child in her arms was also impossible to work.
When Lucy got pregnant with her second child, she realized that such a long working day for Adrian was a burden for the whole family: “My first trimester of pregnancy was very difficult physically for me, and Adrian practically did not see our son: he left early, but came back when the baby was already asleep. And so, at the beginning of the year he had a period when he worked much less for two weeks. We so enjoyed being a family again. We thought that this “sweating” rhythm may be important for his future career, but for our family he is murderous. ”
At the new job, Adrian could not ask for parental leave, so the couple decided to try working together, because once they had already discussed it. And so, from that moment on, they became all the responsibilities of sharing 50 / 50. Adrian used to be a creative director. Now he helps Lucy's business, which deals with PR, enhancing its creative elements: branding and design. He created a new site, refreshed branding and leads social networks.
“It totally changed my business,” says Lucy. A new brand image has opened me the door to new clients who pay more for personal coaching, I am invited to record podcasts and as a speaker. ”
Together, the couple launched their first joint product - “52 PR tips”: a tool for developing PR-ideas to help start-ups and entrepreneurs. And very soon they plan to publish the first books of Lucy about PR-management. In order to somehow share life and work, Adrian and Lucy meet once a week for lunch or dinner and do not say a word about work.
