When your business partner is your life partner, you can expect some unique challenges. Sara McEvoy offers solutions for a healthy relationship inside and outside the box.
My husband, John, and I got married in October 2009. We had been doing CrossFit for about one year before we got hitched, and 10 months after our wedding we opened our own affiliate: CrossFit Craic in Dedham, Mass.
For John, owning a gym had been his dream since he was a little punk in Ireland, muttering to himself in his Irish brogue as he drew floor plans and proposed start-up capital in math class. Fast-forward about 15 years or so and John was finally able to see his dream come to fruition by way of a little serendipity, serious hustling and good old-fashioned grit. And sledgehammers.
I feel happy to be a part of its creation and often wonder if spouses face a different experience opening their affiliate compared with, say, former platoon mates or firefighters assigned to the same ladder. Is there anything inherently difficult about creating a professional relationship that must co-habit with a completely personal one?
I believe the answer to these questions is most often an emphatic “yes.”