How to make husband-and-wife remodeling businesses work

I Do, I Don’t Find out how you and your spouse’s relationship fares compared with other entrepreneurial couples.

• Put on the polygraph and posit the 24 questions on the “Checklist for Couples in Family Business” at www.familybusinessonline.org.
• Check out author Azriela Jaffe’s “10 most common mistakes made by unhappy entrepreneurial couples” at www.isquare.com.

• Self-Help Section

  Whether you’re online or at your neighborhood bookstore, you’ll find no shortage of books about working couples.

• Couples at Work: How Can You Stand to Work With Your Spouse? by E.W. James, et al.
• Entrepreneurial Couples: Making It Work at Work and at Home, by Kathy Marshack. Honey, I Want to Start My Own Business: A Planning Guide for Couples, by Azriela Jaffe.
• In Business and In Love, by Chuck and Aprill Jones.
• Married in Business: What You Must Know and Achieve to Survive and Thrive in Partnership, by Jack and Elaine Wyman.

• Couples Counseling

  Get the help you need. In addition to the coaches mentioned in the story, and established industry consultants such as Remodelers Advantage and Business Networks, you can seek counseling through two professional associations. Find a business, personal, or family coach just right for you and your company.

  International Coach Federation
  1444 I St. N.W.
  Suite 700
  Washington, D.C. 20005
  888.423.3121
  www.coachfederation.org

  Worldwide Association of Business Coaches
  8578 Echo Place West
  Sidney, BC, V8L 5E2
  Canada
  www.wabccoaches.com

  Pat McCann
  McCann Communications
  P.O. Box 833
  Wilmette, Ill. 60091
  847.256.8608
  www.mccanncoach.com

  Clay Nelson
  Consulting Services Network
  4063 Naranjo Drive
  Santa Barbara, Calif. 93110
  309.284.0432
  www.cjenterprises.com