Can you manage a new business and a personal relationship?

I recently met a girl and It’s been delightful (lol thats right, the word i choose was ‘delightful’) we have lots in common however, now that I have started my business I must commit a large proportion of time to running the business, I then thought to myself do I have time for a girl and can you have a relationship with someone you work with?

CONFIDE

One of the main pro’s of having a partner when establishing a business is that you have someone to confide in. My friend, the CEO of the right copy (

www.therightcopy.co.uk) was explaining to me that business can be stressful at times and I agree, having someone to confide in when things get hard can help (in more ways than one ha haa) . He then said you usually can’t tell your friends everything but you can usually confide in your partner. This can reduce stress and improve performance whilst working.

HELP

Everyone needs help especially within business consequently, one advantage of being in a relationship whilst running a business is that your partner can help. For example my friend George (co-founder of Remskine holidays

www.remskineholidays.co.uk ) is lucky to have his girl help with promotion and other things. Your partner also has a network of people they know, and their contacts could offer opportunities.

On the other hand the level of involvement of your partner can have an adverse effect as the emotions could spill into the business.

SPLIT FOCUS

Within business you need to be completely focused in order to succeed however, when you have a partner your focus will be spilt especially if there are issues within the relationship. This could affect the quality of the decisions made within business adversely.

UNFAIR

When running a business you will inevitably dedicate a large proportion of your time to running the business and it could be seen as unfair on your partner as you can’t spend time with them. This in turn puts a strain on the relationship as the partner is not happy. This is especially unfair if there are young children involved as one spouse is forced to take on all the responsibilities of raising the children.

CONCLUSION

If I stayed single whilst trying to make it I would be more focused, but, would I be happy? According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs I wouldn’t be satisfying my “love and belonging” needs so, based on that I wouldn’t be happy. People say for your relationship to work you have to keep your private and public life in balanced however, I once heard Tim Campbell say you can’t separate it, I believe what he meant was that when running your own business things are not black and white, priorities of business and other aspects of life will constantly clash with one another.

To conclude, I believe for relationship to be strong a couple must experience trials and tribulations together. They must be able to share most parts of their lives with one another. Therefore, I think I would rather have a girl when I’m struggling rather than when I’m made. This is because the love would be genuine. So I believe there’s no question that if the right person comes along when you are running your business, studying or working you should hold on to them. The question is can that person understand what you are striving for and do they believe in what your vision, do they believe in it as much as you do? Or are they competing with your business/studying or work for attention?

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