SLOW BURN MARKETING
  • Home
  • Portfolio
    • Branding
    • Audio / Video
    • Print
    • Web
    • Collateral Etc.
  • About
    • Blaine Parker
    • Honey Parker
    • Testimonials
  • Services
    • Do You Fit?
  • Stuff
    • Speaking
    • Books
    • Newsletter
  • Story Lab
  • Contact

If you're sleeping with the boss (or the boss is sleeping with you), you need to know about this...

9/6/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
DO YOU OWN A BUSINESS WITH YOUR HUSBAND/WIFE/PARTNER/SIGNIFICANT OTHER?
 
If so, you are brave and lucky individual.
 
Lucky because you get to run a business with the most important person in your life.
 
Brave because there's a good chance your relationship will be destroyed when it augers into the dirt like a drunk in squirrel suit hurling himself off a cliff in the Swiss alps.
 
Did you know that 57% of all couplepreneur businesses end in business failure AND divorce?
 
Did you also know that your faithful scribe just pulled that statistic out of thin air?
 
YES, THAT STATISTIC IS A LIE
 
As far as you know.
 
But it brings up an important question: how the hell do entrepreneurial couples make it work?
 
The Fabulous Honey Parker and I are constantly asking ourselves that question even as we run a business together.
 
From our lofty writers' perch here at the Mountaintop Marketing Fortress, we peer down into the world of entrepreneurial couples across the land and wonder, "Does anyone have louder, more vehement, knock-down, drag-out arguments about comma placement than we do?"
 
Professional writers in business together. You certainly can't say that we don't care about our product.
 
CALL US THE BILL & MELINDA GATES OF SMALL-BUSINESS BRANDING
 
No, we're not multi-billionaires.
 
Nor is either one of us a propeller-head overlord intent on ruling the world through domination of zeroes and ones.
 
But like the Gateses, we are a married (ahem) "power" couple who've joined forces to make the world a better place--but through small-business branding.
 
And as Mrs. Gates says about her partnership with Mr. Gates, "We have a collaborative relationship, but we don't spend every minute together."
 
Of course, Honey and I probably spend more time together than they do, engaging in various kinds of lunacy that Bill and Melinda might eschew. It's hard to imagine the fearless leaders of the Gates Foundation training for wilderness endurance races together.

CAN YOU SAY, "BRING ME THE EPSOM SALTS, DEAR"?
 
Anyway, there is a point to all this.
 
Not that both working and playing together is somehow the be-all and end-all of professional perfection.
 
Though, there is something to be said for being able to do all this with your best friend on earth.
 
However, if you do own a business with your significant other--or you know a couple who does so--you know that such an undertaking is a glorious minefield.
 
You think everything's going along swimmingly and then--KABLOOM! Professional and personal body parts everywhere.
 
HOW DO BILL & MELINDA GATES DO IT?
 
Or Brangelina? (Apparently Angelina directed Brad in By The Sea and they found it really difficult. But they survived and are stronger for it.)
 
Or Beyoncé and Jay-Z? (In the wake of rumors about marital trouble on their On The Run tour, they renewed their vows and released a new album. They survived and are stronger for it.)
 
Or any of the thousands of other non-power couples who run little businesses all across this great nation of ours and survive the daily BS and are stronger for it?
 
How do they keep the ship afloat despite doing one of the most insanely inadvisable things in business: sleeping with the boss.

Especially when you're not sure who the boss really is? 

KABLOOM!

(You might think that I'm the boss in this business, since Honey routinely calls me, "Mr. Parker." You would be entirely wrong.)
 
WHAT IS THE SECRET TO A CRACK COUPLE IN BUSINESS TOGETHER? 
 
This is the question that The Fabulous Honey Parker and your relentless scribe have been asking.
 
And knowing how to have a violent throwdown about comma placement is definitely not the answer. Or even part of it. (Though it certainly makes for a good story over cocktails.)
 
We've learned by doing.
 
But there has to be a better way.
 
This is why your relentless scribe now poses this question: what would you like to know about working with your husband/wife/significant other?
 
Are you in such a business/relationship now?
 
Would you like to be?
 
IF YOU'RE NOT OR YOU DON'T, DO YOU JUST STAND ON THE SIDELINES?
 
Are you watching the couples who are doing it and just shaking your head?
 
Do you think they are insane?
 
Do you envy them?
 
Do you wish they had better comma placement skills?
 
What is the single burning question on your mind about couplepreneurism?
 
Send it our way, because The Fabulous Honey Parker and I are grappling with this challenge right now, this very minute.
 
AND THE RESULTS ARE GOING TO BE A WHOLE LOT OF FUN
 
Yesterday, September 5, Labor Day 2016, we officially launched a project called CoupleCo. 

Tagline: It's business...and it's personal.

CoupleCo is an entrepreneur's resource for married couples or significant others who have started a business together. 

And right now, we need to know what a couple (like you if that is you) in business together needs and would like to see. 

And since you know that we here at the Fortress have a very hard time not enjoying what we do, there will be laughs. Frequently there is entertainment. 

Even if you're not in business with your life partner but have flirted with the idea--or think we're all just crazy--talk to us.
 
If you know someone who fits the bill, share this missive with him/her/them.

0 Comments
    Picture

    Author

    Blaine Parker is prone to ranting about any and all things related to brand. In many ways, he is a professional curmudgeon. While there is no known vaccine for this, the condition is also not contagious. Unless you choose it to be so. 

    Archives

    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015

    Categories

    All
    Abe Lincoln
    Advertising
    Advertising As Art
    Ad Writing
    Amazon
    Apathy
    Art And Advertising
    Attack Ads
    Authenticity
    Beat Bobby Flay
    Besotted
    Best Ads Of 2017
    Big Ideas
    Billboards
    Bobby Flay
    Book Marketing
    Brand Advertising
    Branding
    Branding Book
    Branding Santa Claus
    Brand Names
    Bud Light
    Budwieser
    Burger King
    Burger King Advertising
    Burning Man
    Burning Questions
    Business Book
    Buy Now
    Car Advertising
    Carefu;-ish
    Careful-ish
    Casablanca
    Christmas
    Commercials
    Commitment
    Communication
    Content
    Core Customer
    Corny
    Corporate Culture
    CoupleCo
    Couplepreneurs
    COVID 19
    COVID-19
    Crazy Ivan
    Creativity
    Creativity Over Message
    Cult Brands
    Customers
    David Ogilvy
    Dick Orkin
    Diisruptive
    Down Market
    Dr Sam's Eye Care
    Effectivness
    Electronics
    Entrenched
    Exceeding Expectaion
    Facebook Advertising
    Feeling
    Focus
    Focus Grouping
    Fonts
    Food
    Fraud
    Gary Vaynerchuk
    Hair Club For Men
    Hanukkah
    Holidays
    Hotels
    Hugo Boss
    Hurricane Relief
    Ideas
    Influence
    Inspiration
    Internet Radio
    Jeep
    Jerry Lewis
    Johnnie Walker
    Jungles
    Krylon Spray Paint
    Lawyers
    Lightning Branding
    Logos
    Lulu Lemon
    Mackerel
    Make Customers Care
    Marketing
    Masks
    Meaning
    Media
    Medical Tourism
    Membership
    Me Too
    Millennials
    Milton Glaser
    Must See TV
    Napa
    Nastalgia
    New Clients
    New Skills
    New Years
    Nicaragua
    Niche Brands
    Offers
    Ogilvy On Advertising
    Outdoor
    Pasta
    Patriotism
    Pen & Paper
    Personal Brand
    Pizza
    Podcasts
    Poetry
    Point Of Purchase
    Political Advertising
    Political Correctness
    Price Advertising
    Pringles
    Procrastination
    Product Experience
    Publicity Stunts
    Punctuation
    Puppy Monkey Baby
    Radio
    Reader Question
    Reality TV
    Relationship Marketing
    Repeat Customers
    Research
    Rhode Island Tourism
    Road Trip
    Romance
    Rosser Reeves
    Sailing
    Sales Staff Writing Radio
    SEO
    Small Business
    Small Business Branding
    SnapChat
    Social Media
    Social Media Marketing
    State Farm
    Story
    Struggling
    Subaru
    Super
    Superbowl
    Super Bowl Ads
    Sushi
    Sy Sperlling
    Taglines
    Thanksgiving
    The Big Short
    Trademarks
    USP (Unique Selling Proposition)
    Vail
    Velcro
    Vernacular
    Vocabulary
    Wine
    Words Good
    Writing
    Writing Advertising
    Zeitgeist

    RSS Feed

OFFERING:
Branding & Marketing
Speaking
Books
Newsletter


INFO:
Services Breakdown
​
Clients
About
Testimonials
Contact
STORY LAB
Picture
​
​
© Copyright 2020 Slow Burn Marketing LLC
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
Picture
  • Home
  • Portfolio
    • Branding
    • Audio / Video
    • Print
    • Web
    • Collateral Etc.
  • About
    • Blaine Parker
    • Honey Parker
    • Testimonials
  • Services
    • Do You Fit?
  • Stuff
    • Speaking
    • Books
    • Newsletter
  • Story Lab
  • Contact