We both have very different approaches to money – both earning it and having it. Me? I’m a saver. Him? He’s a spender.

In fact anyone who knows us personally, knows we’re essentially very different personalities in both character and our approaches to life in general. You know what they say…opposites attract and we’ve been together for over 14 years and married happily for 4, with the past 2 years spent running our business together.

But being partners in business and life (copreneurs, apparently) can be a hard slog at times.

If you’re considering setting up or going into business with your partner, here are a few of the ground rules we’ve learned along the way to keep the peace, love and light in both areas of your life…

1 – Keep the boundaries & the roles clear

Bit of an obvious one this but when you’re in the midst of your life together, it’s easy to blur the boundaries of your life, love and business together. If you’re not careful, you may find it hard to separate where the work relationship ends and the personal one begins.

On the practical, domestic front, one (or both) of you is still going to need to keep your household running (doing the dishes, cooking, doing the shopping), as well as being involved in the business. It’s easy to get into squabbles about who does this or that and who does more or less.

Avoid this by agreeing responsibilities and roles in both areas. It may even help to draw up a list 2 columns headed by your name on one side and your partner’s on the other. Then have 2 sections: Personal Responsibilities & Business Responsibilities and list your agreed individual roles and responsibilities under each section. This then helps ensure your individual roles are both clear and equally divided.

In our ultra-modern household, Jonathan is the designated “House Manager” which means he has responsibility for shopping, cooking, washing etc. whilst I’m the “Travel Manager” which means I sort out the travels plans and research each new destination we want to live inn. We have similarly divided roles in the business.

2 – Agree (and stick to) the financial arrangement of your income/joint business

Money. Aaaaaagh. Often a sticking point between couples – and even more so if you run a business together.

If you are not a limited company and/or don’t have an ‘official’ business bank account into which all your business income is paid, out of which you pay yourselves a salary…then make sure you agree how your business income will be collected and distributed.

This is especially important if your roles in the business are very different; you must agree your individual salaries and also your contributions to the household from the business…and then stick to them.

3 – Ensure you’re arguing from the same PoV

It became really clear during our argument this morning (right around the point I wanted to tear my hair out and Jonathan was in another silent mood), that we were actually arguing from completely different points of view.

I was arguing from a business relationship perspective; Jonathan was arguing from a personal relationship perspective. The currency I was talking about was money; his was emotional. No wonder we couldn’t seem to resolve things (don’t worry – it’s all blown over now though!).

It is so easy when you spend both your personal and professional lives together, to throw all aspects of your relationship into the mix during an argument. Don’t. It can get really nasty and it’s not worth it.

If you are arguing about something make sure you’re both arguing about the same thing and you’re both talking about the same currency (money, time, love, emotions etc.) otherwise you’ll never come to a satisfying conclusion for either side.

4 – Take a break

Running your own business is time-consuming and all-consuming. Running a business together with your life partner may mean that almost all your conversations revolve around some aspect of the business. It can be seriously dull – both for you and other people!

And as many business owners and entrepreneurs know, holidays can become a thing of the past – especially if you, like us, are seemingly on a permanent holiday gadding around the globe as nomadic, location independent entrepreneurs.

You will probably need to make a conscious effort to take a break from your business – either with a ‘proper’ holiday or simply not touching your computer for a few days and not talking about the business together. It’s crucial for your relationship that it doesn’t all become about the business.

And, if you’re interested, we resolved our differences by agreeing to work more independently of each other and generate our own clients and run our own projects; so instead of having one of us generating the business (me) and one of us working in the business (Jonathan), we’ll have both of us generating more business, enabling us to hire more people.