Couples going into business together, or "copreneurs" as called by the popular press, has substantial potential advantages or disadvantages. On the positive side, couples working together can fully integrate their professional and personal lives. This allows them to capitalize on each other's strengths. It also allows them to fully understand the issues the other person is facing and to act as a sounding board. This arrangement can offer flexibility allowing one spouse to handle the business and the other to stay at home. Both members can potentially achieve complete satisfaction in both worlds.
However, the disadvantages are as potentially significant. Probably the most important issue is the potential for conflict. Problems can arise over large and small issues. If the business has employees, the employees quickly figure out who to approach with what problems. If there are not clear lines of authority, decisions made by one spouse may be contrary to what another person has said or would have said. Conflicts may also arise over who is responsible for the various household-related duties. Finally, it also may be financially beneficial not to have the spouses working at the same enterprise. Many times a small start-up business is struggling to finance the operation. It may be more financially advantageous to diversify sources of income and to have the spouse employed somewhere else, bringing a continuous flow of cash to the family. Employment of one spouse elsewhere may also be the source of medical insurance and/or other benefits, a resource that small business owners have a struggle to find.
So which couples go into business or stay in business over a period of time? Research has found that more successful businesses in terms of gross profits and money contributed to the household are more likely to become or remain a copreneurial business. Also businesses with older business managers and more employees are also more likely to become a copreneurial business. Businesses struggling to make ends meet, while staying in operation, are more likely to have one of the spouses leave the business operation.
