Do you have a buinsess idea, but have a niggling voice in you life trying to stop you from pressing aheads? It could be your best friend, one of your parents or your colleague…and you could choose to ignore them. But if it’s the voice of your spouse or life partner, what do you do?
Keep your eye on the prize
If you know why you want to start your business and have the passion and motivation to see it through, it’s easy to wonder why your nearest and dearest can’t see it, too.
Different strokes
Just like how you may like Marmite on your toast and your spouse can’t even bear the smell of it, we all have individual differences. Just like with other areas of life, you may not always agree on things, and you may have to accept that (at least until your business starts making money). Try to stay focused on what’s important to you and your business and try not to make a big issue of the lack of support unless it’s absolutely necessary.
Don’t focus on shifting his mindset
Shifting someone else’s mindset isn’t always easy or straightforward – it can also be impossible. Like the saying goes, ‘You can lead the camel to water, but you can’t make it drink!’.
What you can do is try to work out where the resistance is coming from. Is it the time you’re spending on your new ‘baby’ (i.e. your business) that’s taking away time you used to spend together and causing resentment? If that’s what’s causing a lack of support, how can you fix it? Can you schedule your work so that there is always quality time with your spouse? Are you flitting away your joint savings on a project when the money is needed elsewhere in the household? If that’s the case you definitely need to get some buy in, because the money belongs to both of you. Find out if there another way you can bankroll your project without putting a strain on your family’s finances? If there isn’t, can you make a separate savings account, or agree a limit to what you invest in the business (together) so that there is no ressentment?
A deeper look
If all else fails, sometimes you’ll have no choice but to press on until the results in your business start to speak for itself. If this still doesn’t work, maybe there are some underlying issues in your relationship that you need to discuss as a couple. Good luck!
