5 Rules I Followed to Build a 6-Figure Online Business with My Boyfriend

From nightmare to living the laptop lifestyle

In April 2017, I participated in an event series designed to help students tap into entrepreneurship. A month later, I wasn’t only dedicated to starting my own business but also dating one of the event organizers.

Three months after I met Philip, we started organizing personal development workshops for students. What began as a passion project soon turned into our common life goal: Supporting people to unleash their full potential through a business that deeply fulfills us.

Our workshops were a side hustle and we barely charged attendees. We’ve not been after the money but about the experiences we made and the people we met.

Three years later, we decided to stop hosting workshops and to focus on building an online business.

Luckily, we made that decision in December 2019, shortly before the pandemic heavily affected the event business anyway.

In the following months, we used our time to build a 6-figure online business in less than a year.

And even though I’d choose the same path over and over again, running your business with your better half isn’t always easy.

Schedule business meetings, romantic dates, and alone time.

When I first told Philip that I want to schedule business meetings and write minutes, he thought I was joking.

But the reality is that business meetings and romantic dates can quickly become indistinct if you don’t set boundaries.

As a passionate entrepreneur, you might often find yourself working late at night or during the weekend. At the same time, you might find yourself talking about the business all the time.

To avoid this, we schedule business meetings and date nights.

We take an hour every Monday to talk about our goals for the week. Additionally, we decide on a shared activity we want to engage in to nourish our relationship. This can be a movie night, going out for drinks, playing billard, or anything else that we enjoy doing together.

Apart from that, we’re also careful about making sure each of us has enough alone time.

My partner and I live together and work together, which basically means we spend 99.9% of our time together.

And even though we love this reality, we both need our alone time too.

How to do it:

You might not be able to fully separate the business from your private life when you’re running a company with your partner.

However, you can at least ensure that you talk about important things during a more formal business meeting.

Additionally, don’t forget to schedule romantic dates and me-time so you can also nourish your relationship and take care of yourself while growing your company.

And make sure you don’t forget to celebrate your wins during your date nights. Sometimes, we get so caught up in chasing the next big thing that we forget to embrace our successes.

You can work hard and play hard. If you do both, the whole journey will be more fun and fulfilling, so make sure you also reward yourself.

“Our relationships, whether business or personal, are nourished and shaped by the commitment we express through our actions.”

— Steve Maraboli

Be each other’s critic, cheerleader, and coach.

Effective leadership includes critiquing, empowering, and coaching those around you.

Even though we’re still a team of two and only hire freelancers for specific projects, Philip and I give our best to show up as leaders by being each other’s critics, cheerleaders, and coaches.

Keeping these three fundamentals in mind helps us perform at our best while improving as business partners and caring lovers.

We both expect each other to provide constructive feedback, cheer each other up, and support each other during challenging situations.

How to do it:

Even if you’ve been in a relationship for years, starting and running a business with your partner might be a whole new challenge.

Before you dive into scaling your numbers, make sure you set a healthy foundation for your personal growth by showing up as each other’s critic, cheerleader, and coach.

Giving constructive feedback as a critic or supporting each other as a coach isn’t always easy, but it’ll help you move forward with fun and ease.

Clearly communicate your expectations.

As a passionate entrepreneur, you’ll likely be excited about your business and talk about your ideas late at night or during a romantic dinner.

This has become normal for us because we decided that’s how we want to live our lives. We love what we do and if one of us has an idea or question, we don’t hesitate to talk about the business at 10 pm.

However, finding a balance wasn’t easy and if you’re not careful about setting boundaries, you might soon find yourself living for the business, which isn’t the goal.

Especially if you’re starting a side-hustle, it can be worth separating your work from your relationship.

Otherwise, it can quickly become hard to set priorities and you might lack intimacy and romance in your relationship.

Sometimes, it’s important to be in a co-founder role and act as business partners instead of a couple. And sometimes, the contrary is the case.

How to do it:

You really can’t expect to build a successful business if you can’t clearly communicate your expectations.

However, giving feedback without hurting each other is particularly challenging when you’re in a relationship, so make sure you know what your partner needs and expects.

You can indeed be respectful and supportive while disagreeing with each other. Just make sure you understand the needs and desires of your partner — in your relationship but also as a co-founder.

This will ensure that you can perform at your best while also enjoying your romantic partnership.

Allow yourself to question your choices.

When we first started our business, I often found myself questioning our choices but didn’t feel comfortable sharing my doubts with my partner.

On the one side, I didn’t want to sound pessimistic and doubt our goals and on the other side, I was afraid of disappointing him.

This led to lots of frustration as I didn’t feel intrinsically motivated to work on our common goals. And in the end, he always knew that something was off anyway.

Looking back, the #1 rule I’d define is to make sure you both can question your choices and goals without feeling bad.

Just because you decide to work on common goals doesn’t mean you can’t make changes.

Entrepreneurship requires lots of trial and error and if you’re afraid to talk about your doubts, you might end up wasting lots of time.

How to do it:

Regularly check in with your partner and talk about the big picture of your business and relationship.

We take time for long reflection sessions once every three months. However, we also check in monthly to see if we’re both on the same page and comfortable with the projects we’re currently working on.

If you don’t take time for these conversations, you might soon develop different visions and goals, which will definitely harm both your business and your relationship.

Make sure you complete each other.

Smart entrepreneurs don’t start a business with someone who has the same skills and strengths.

If you and your co-founder are both programmers, but none of you can sell the product, you’ll have a problem.

In that case, you’ll either need to hire a salesperson or invest lots of time into learning how to market your product.

On the contrary, if you have different skills and strengths, you’ll be able to come far without paying someone or investing additional time.

When Philip and I first started our business, we’ve been working on the same tasks. We didn’t know our strengths and weaknesses and often spent hours working on certain tasks together instead of assigning clear responsibilities.

This wasn’t only time-consuming but also exhausting and frustrating.

It took us three years to realize that we have completely different strengths that would help us move our business forward.

While I’m a prolific writer and can easily connect with our audience, Philip is great at business development and manages the entire technical back end of our company. Combining these skills helped us scale from zero to six figures in ten months without hiring employees or exhausting ourselves.

How to do it:

If you want to build and scale a business with your better half, make sure your skills and strengths are complementary.

Figuring out what you’re good at might take some time, but it’ll be worth it.

Contrary to the beginning, we now have distinct responsibilities.

Instead of working on everything simultaneously, we ensure that both of us can play to their strengths. This doesn’t only lead to better results, but it also makes each of us happier as we can focus on the things we’re each good at.

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