Thinking about buying a franchise with your significant other? Ask yourself seven important questions to determine if you and your spouse would make good business partners.

Couples are going into business together more than ever before. About 1.2 million Americans run a business with alongside their spouse. Companies like EventBrite, Modcloth, Panda Express and Gap were all built into major brands by married couples who found success both personally and professionally.

If you and your spouse share a goal of owning a business, the next step is, well, figuring out if you’re the type of couple that would likely work well as business partners.

The key to figuring that out is asking the right questions. Here’s seven of the most important, according to our very own spousal franchise owners. 

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About 1.2 million Americans run a business with their spouse according to a study from National Federation of Independent Businesses.

Obviously, spouses can and do make successful businesses partners. But if you and your significant other are thinking about becoming business partners yourselves, just about every successful business couple will tell you the same thing: it’s all about balance.

When you can strike this balance in your personal and professional relationship, you and your spouse can rightfully claim the ultimate title of power couple. But getting there takes diligence and some old-fashioned hard work.

As you might already know, there’s a lot of articles floating around warning couples against working together (usually written by those who haven’t made it work themselves). But our own franchise system and many other businesses prove these people wrong.

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Want to trade in your nine-to-five job and work for yourself? You’re not alone. Self-employment is on the rise in America, right alongside the number of people earning six-figure incomes doing so, according to a recent report.

In 2017, the total number of self-employed Americans increased to 40.8 million. That’s up 2.8% from 2016, according to the report by MBO Partners. The number of full-time independent workers earning $100,000 or more rose to 3.2 million, up 4.9% since 2016.

In addition to earning more money, self-employed individuals are also reporting that they’re more happy and healthy without corporate shackles. 77% of self-employed survey respondents say they are happier working on their own than in a traditional job and 64% said independent work is better for their health.

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The handyman and home services industry is one of the most resilient areas for new business owners. Unlike many other markets, customer spending has already returned to pre-recession levels. Today, the industry is exploding thanks in part to online and mobile booking services that make it easier to find home service providers than ever before.

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There are different kinds of people who purchase franchises. Some like working on all the behind the scenes tasks that come with running a business (financials, marketing, planning, inventory, etc.) while some prefer to hire someone to take care of it so they can spend more time selling or working face to face with customers. Others fall somewhere in between.

When it comes to marketing your franchise, you may instantly identify with someone who wants to handle all the marketing aspects on their own, or identify as someone who wants to outsource those types of activities. But the in-between folks may not have a clear idea of what counts as marketing or what needs to be done to get their business out into the world and draw in more customers.

In this post, we’ll cover how to identify whether you’re a good fit for DIY marketing along with some tools and tactics that are must haves to reach your technology-driven customers. Read more