Tool Box
Issue No. 26 - December/January 2005/06
Tips to surviving a business marriage
Falling in love with a business entrepreneur could mean more than just losing your heart, unless both partners have debt-proofed their finances, warns leading wealth management firm, Prescott Securities.
Prescott financial planner Jenny Weaver said while entrepreneurs were often confident, optimistic and ‘big picture’ people, these qualities also left them — and their partners — exposed to major financial risk if their dreams were to fall apart.
“Be aware that if you are partnering up with someone who has a business mentality, then you are marrying into that dream,” Jenny says.
“They are probably not marrying your dream and are unlikely to adapt to your financial goals. Instead, you find you’ve married their goals and that means you will have to be pretty committed to the business.”
For example, the family home was sometimes mortgaged to finance the business dream of one partner, often causing enormous stress to the other partner who feared losing everything if the business faltered.
“Entrepreneurs tend to be the business-minded people in the partnership, so in regard to money, they would take the lead role and be the dominant partner,” Jenny says.
“They are very capable people, motivated by capital growth, and as a result, risk can be a blind spot for them. The ideal business complement for an entrepreneur is a completer-finisher to mop up the details.
“If you take up with one of these risk takers, you are almost certainly going to be taken along for the ride. As a result, you are married to the dream, but also to the debt.”
A commitment to the business dream, like the marriage itself, must be something a partner is prepared to make for the long-term.
As shown by some of Australia’s most successful entrepreneurs, achieving large personal wealth is not the only goal for those with an intense passion for business.
“There’s no stopping them, because it is ...
