Hubby & Wifey in the work place?

[Sticky Signs]

So I took my wife to the SGIA show in Vegas and she seems to be showing some real interest in getting involved in my business. She has no experience however she has come to the shop to help out a couple times in the past. She likes her current job but I get the feeling she's getting board and is looking for a change.
I'm pretty much a one man show at this point. I sub out most of my installs now. I can easily take care of all of my production but that doesn't leave me much time to do sales - I'm not much of a salesperson anyways and frankly, I don't really like doing sales.
I've always wanted a salesperson to help bring in the work. So, I've been thinking, maybe this is the answer I've been waiting for.
How many of you are doing the husband/wife power couple thing?
How is it working for you?
More importantly, (I've really been scratching my head over this one) how do you go about training an inexperienced individual to sell stuff they really no nothing about?

 

[iSign]

just tell her, "listen up bit (wait what forum is this?) ...oh, "listen up baby... just do EVERYTHING that I say, and remember I AM THE BOSS, and be prepared if things are stressful, lookout.. I'll get pissed & y'all are gonna know about it" ...and then at 5:00 see if she'll still cook for you while you put your feet up & tune in the game...

if so, then you will have succeeded where I failed...

 

[Sticky Signs]

Looks like we'll be ordering a lot of Pizza!

 

[Rick]

If I worked with my wife, it would have catastrophic consequences to everyone within a 100 mile radius...

 

[Fitch]

Train her for a period of time - in "her" time. Then next vacation time she has - get her to "work" with you for two weeks.

Reassess after the two weeks. She may be glad to go back to her job with a new respect for it.

 

[showcase 66]

My wife helps out with the books and a lot of that stuff for me. That takes a lot of stress off of me. I tell everyone that she is my secretary. This way I can sleep with the secretary and not get into trouble.
The first time she came out to the shop and wanted to "help" me she ruined about 10 yards of vinyl when she was trying to weed out things for me. She kept weeding out what needed to be left. She has gotten the hang of it and can now do a lot of the smaller things for me. She can explain pretty much most things to the basic customer.

I enjoy having her around for the most part. There are some times I want to ring her neck. (after typing that I looked over my shoulder just to check if she was reading this)

 

[SignManiac]

I know of only a few successful husband/wife combo's that have worked, so it is possible.
I ended up firing my ex.......

 

[Idea Design]

My wife quit her career job to run our business in our new retail location. She's a thousand times the salesman I'll ever be and it's helped my business ten fold.

She, like CSDD's wife, did the books and a lot of the financials for me when it was just me for sales, design, production, installs, etc. Now that she is the only one at our shop all day, she can handle almost everything except the initial design. I'll still be in charge of that for the time being.

I still have the 7-5 job every day; I'm not brave enough to go balls out with it for one, and I'm not sure either myself or my wife would survive any kind of time working and tripping over one another every day.

Good on her for wanting to get involved. Nothing better than having the family involved in a family business.

I was just thinking the other day how most small business owners rely on someone else's product or service to make it "their" business. Not us, the sign/shirt/graphic shop owners. We rely only on what we can create and sell to call ourselves business owners. I think that's pretty cool.

 

[Patrick46]

My wife LOVES to weed vinyl!????????????? She & our middle daughter would be happy to spend hours doing this horrible job!
She also does our books (thank God)...but never wants to work in the shop as a regular. She has a great job at a hardware store, with great people, and awesome bene's.

Our 19 year old son learned to work in the shop when he was about 12 or so. 3 weeks ago he went to Tazmania for a 2 month vacation...and scored a FULL TIME JOB while there!!! He knows every aspect of working in a sign shop, and he's an amazing young man. They're gonna find out in short order just how good he really is...and never let him go! He's probably not gonna come home till next year now

 

[iSign]

There are some times I want to ring her neck. (after typing that I looked over my shoulder just to check if she was reading this)

yeah.... and you got about 10 more minutes of editing opportunity, after which it becomes part of the permanent record on the net!

(oh, guess not anymore )

 

[GypsyGraphics]

If my husband had a real interested and really enjoyed the kind of work i do, i'd love to have him work with me! He's mentioned a few times that he'd like to... all i had to do was tell him lunch break DO NOT include naps... and he decided i'd be too hard to work for.

opposites personalities may work in a relationship... but i think to work well together you need very similar interests and energy levels. i couldn't tolerate anyone not willing to put in the same hours as i do if they want to be a 50/50 partner in the business.

the fact that my husband is very good at what he does... DOES NOT mean he'd be very good at what i do.

 

[iSign]

I think having a wife working side by side with me every day in this business could work out really well.. it just depends on who's wife!

 

[Wellsyinoz]

That's funny I sign ,
My husband and I plan to work together once we have the turn over to justify my husband leaving his job , shame I do all the books and we just never seem to make the numbers !

 

[threads1]

If you realy love your wife and like being married...DON'T DO IT!

 

[shakey0818]

isigns prertty much summed it up in his 1st post.cheers

 

[Cross Signs]

My wife helps with the books and can weed when I need her to. We could work together everyday.............Or..........we could stay married.

 

[anotherdog]

I run this business with my wife as my partner, she does sales and financial, I do design and production. It works. It's safe to say if we didn't have this combination we would never have made it through the worst of the recession. It can be great....

but before you make the decision realize a few things.

Her income will be paid by the business (no 2nd income).
She will grow to know the business and she WILL have opinions, many times they won't be yours.
You will be together most of the time 24/7
If it doesn't work you won't be able to escape to work.

If she does come in you have to establish rules and draw lines for both of you to respect.

Oh and if you think you will be the boss, forget it.

 

[signage]

Oh and if you think you will be the boss, forget it.

So what's it like working in a dress with hairy legs:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

 

[petesign]

I'll go one further. My father in law and I started this sign company. My wife has another job, but sells quite a few things for us while she is out and notices people who need signs.

You can say things to family that you can't say to employees. LOL.

 

[Billct2]

My wife works for me part time, doing the books and other office work, fills in if we need an extra hand weeding or delivering. It works well, mostly because she has a great attitude regarding my sometimes lousy attitude.