CareerDiva gives advice on mixing love & business

So far I've been able to successfully mix business and friendship with LeShan, my best friend and business partner. I consider myself extremely blessed to work with someone who's my perfect complement, someone who understands my rambling emails and love for crunching numbers.

Though I have yet to start a business with my husband, the possibility of doing so is around the corner and I'm not sure it will be as easy a working relationship. I've heard success stories of husbands and wives who've mixed love and business (e.g. Penny Loves Kenny Shoes), but they're few and far between. Why is that? Eve Tahmincioglu, the woman behind CareerDiva.net, spoke with Donny Deutsch about "why couples fail when they mix love and business."

In the interview Eve highlights five main things that can go wrong when couples go into business together:

• Marriage and business both go belly up
• Romance fizzles
• Dining room becomes the boardroom
• Feelings get hurt
• Power struggles often ensue

Though it feels like a pessimistic view of things I look at it as more of a reality check, a good reason to step back and take stock of your relationship. Ask the tough questions: If the business fails, will the financial strain have a serious impact on our relationship? Do we place enough importance on separating business and pleasure so romance can survive?

Just because you've lived together for 12 years (has it really been that long?!?!) doesn't mean you can do business together for 1. I'm thinking we might even want to work out the details of our working relationship and document them. Yes, that's my Type A personality creeping in, but my husband's going to have to learn to work with that too!

CareerDiva.net has other great posts relating to work-life balance that are definitely worth the read. Take a few moments on this mompreneur monday to browse the site. Her posts on screwing the works are an especially enlightening read. --Emily