Most business content misses one of the most crucial roles in a business. it makes the faulty assumption that work is work and home is home. Narry the two shall meet.

That’s not the truth of life though. Your life outside of work and your work an intertwined. They can’t be separated.

This month, we’re going to explore that meshing of home and work in more detail, starting today with how you and your spouse or partner talk about your business.

When I start working with most of my clients they don’t spend any time intentionally talking with their spouse about business. Sure they vent about that bad client. They share a smile and high five when a big new client is landed.

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But 99% of the communication is ships passing in the night. You see the lights and that’s it.

Here’s how to take that communication deeper.

How often

The first thing you need to do is to schedule a date to talk about the business. Make it a regular appointment and stick to it.

This is not date night. It’s something different where you both talk through what’s going on in the business. The point is that it’s on the calendar and that you both show up ready to talk about the business.

What to talk about

You should be talking about which projects are going on. What is going to wrap up soon? What is on the horizon?

You should be talking about leading metrics, like the number of leads the business got in the last month.

You should also be bringing lagging metrics to the table like how profitable you were last month.

Most of you couldn’t tell me the number of leads you got in the last month and the rest can’t tell me how profitable you were. That means you’re going to have to put in the work to track these metrics because a business tracks them and a hobby doesn’t.

You should be talking about the things you’re afraid of in the business. That goes for both parties, not just you who sit in the business every day.

Talk about your yearly goals and how the progress is going towards them.

Dig in together

As a spouse, you need to dig in. The biggest thing your entrepreneur wants is to know they’re not in it on their own. They want to know you’re interested in their success.

That means you need to pay attention and ask some questions. If there are new prospects in the pipeline, ask about them. Maybe you’ll hear something that gives you pause and the business won’t end up taking the client.

The meetings don’t have to be multi-hour affairs. Once you’ve done a few you’ll often only need 30 minutes at the kitchen table.

If you want to move your work from hobby to business, start these meetings this month.

photo by: sheeprus