‘Copreneurs’ across Britain are flying the flag for self-employment & the entrepreneurial mindset by starting up & running successful businesses.
Partnerships in business are common place, but what happens when these partnerships extend beyond professional & in to the personal? ‘Copreneurs’ across Britain are flying the flag for self-employment & the entrepreneurial mindset by starting up & running successful businesses. But how do you strike a balance? Where does work end & relationship begin? Does it? Can it? Virtually Smart Ltd has been investigating these unique working partnerships & have spoken to two couples from very diverse industry backgrounds about how their businesses started & how they maintain a working & personal connection.
Many people might argue that working with your partner/spouse might mean there is no time for you as a romantically connected couple. However, studies have shown that out of 4.7 million family owned businesses in the UK in 2017, coprenuers ran 1.4 million of them. As we have discussed in previous Virtually Smart Ltd blogs, with the rise in self-employment set to continue & at least 10% of the UK work force planning to set up their own businesses in 2018; how do some couples not only maintain a copreneur existence, but manage to thrive in the British economy?
Virtually Smart Ltd has recently spoken with Richard Bryant & Carolyn Heighway of Past Historic. Past Historic which has been in existence for more than 30 years, specialises in the design, production and editing of books of history and archaeology and in the design and production of exhibition panels for historic sites. Past Historic is also an archaeological consultancy, with a particular interest in churches. Richard Bryant has specialised in archaeological recording including complex stone buildings, and he is also an illustrator well-known for his drawings of Anglo-Saxon sculpture. Carolyn Heighway is a consultant archaeologist with a background in excavation and publication.
Virtually Smart Ltd posed some probing questions to Richard & Carolyn about how their working partnership came about.
Past Historic partnership questions
What additional job titles do you currently have outside of Past Historic?
“Richard is an SSM and he also does research into Anglo-Saxon sculpture. Carolyn is churchwarden with all that that entails and was Archaeologist at Gloucester Cathedral for many years and gave occasional lectures.”
What are your defined roles in the business?
“Carolyn does Despatch and Accounts and ‘styling’ (working on the electronic files to impose standard styles and eliminate errors). Richard does the page-making and design and organises the printing (i.e. gets prices from printers, prepares the material, does estimates of cost for the client). We both do invoicing — having agreed a numbering system.”
When did you make the initial decision to start Past Historic?
“It was forced on us by Richard’s redundancy. We used quite a lot of Richard’s redundancy pay to buy computer equipment and a high-quality laser printer.”
What were your initial goals?
“To earn a living. And NOT to have to increase productivity every year (this we find is called doughnut economics).”
Did you discuss at the inception?
“No! We just did it. Having said that, we had worked together in various projects and knew we had complementary skills. We do think it is important to have a separate work place and relaxing space.”
Did you seek business advice and support at the beginning?
“None, though Richard had plenty of experience at Alan Suttons of how to run a publishing business. It helps that we don’t have employees. We pay occasional fees.”
Did you have professional connections?
“We already had some of these. Suttons were discarding all their academic journal customers so we picked some of them up.”
What IT systems have you & do you use?
“A program called Page Plus, then Adobe Indesign (advised by one of our printers). Photoshop. Excel. Access (last one rarely used – far too complex). Excel however is brilliant (usually used by Carolyn for accounts). And Microsoft Word.
Steepest learning curve: learning Adobe Illustrator ( Carolyn still can’t do this). Learning Indesign. Visiting printers and negotiating sensible prices.”
What pitfalls have you come across in your business?
“Inability of all clients to stick to deadlines. But this is a programming problem rather than a major drawback. Because our clients are academics/trusts, we have never had a bad debt.”
How do you celebrate your successes?
“With champagne!”
Virtually Smart Ltd have also spoken to Daniel Morris & Katy Mason of mono motorcycles & vehicle security about how they came to work together. mono motorcycles has recently celebrated one year of business & a lot has changed in that first year. Daniel, who was an AA RSS Roadside Patrol for 10 years, had always dreamed of running his own motorcycle business & finally took the plunge in 2017. After nearly a year of working as a mobile motorcycle technician, Daniel moved into a large permanent workshop in February 2018. Katy Mason was working as FT Secondary English teacher until Christmas 2017, but left the profession in the new year to find an alternative career path.
mono motorcycles partnership questions
Do you have defined roles within mono motorcycles & vehicle security?
“Daniel is the Master Technician & undertakes all of the mechanical works. Katy over the past year has gone from initial logo designer to Business/Marketing Manager.”
How and when did you make the decision to take on a business together?
“The business started to grow in April 2017. Daniel registered as part time self-employed & with Katy’s support launched the business as a full time going concern from July 2017. We worked together from the beginning pulling on our individual strengths. Daniel, with over 30 years mechanical experience to his name, started to build a client base based on his connections & friends initially. Katy designed the original logo & then set about putting all of the administration procedures, invoicing, advertising & business support under the business. It was only after Katy left full time teaching at the beginning of 2018, that the original conversation about working together full time, started to happen. We always knew we wanted to work together, but hadn’t planned on it happening so soon.”
What were your initial goals?
“The initial goals were always about a better standard of life & the freedom to create our own future”
Did you discuss at the inception of the business how you would manage a professional and personal relationship?
“We didn’t really discuss it, as we had spent Summer 2017 working alongside each other, we knew we had a good working partnership anyway”
What business advice & support did you seek to ensure you were setting up within business parameters?
“Katy, with her strengths in research & academic understanding, spent many hours ensuring that the administration procedures followed correct guidelines. Building T’s & C’s, marketing strategies, administration & invoicing were all learnt from internet reading, policy understanding & reaching out to other business owners for advice & pointers.”
What IT systems have you used over the years, for what purpose & what has worked best for your industry?
“For the mechanical side of the business, Daniel has to use a considerable amount of technical data. Tune ECU software is used to MAP motorcycles & communicate with their electronic brains. In addition, Daniel does use other programmes, some of which sadly struggle with new applications like Windows 10, especially when working on older model motorcycles. The logo was designed by Katy originally in Photoshop & most of the publicity materials have been created in Publisher. In addition, we now use SAGE Business Cloud, Toggl & of course the full 365 package.”
What has been your biggest learning curve to date?
“The biggest learning curve to date, is to ensure the T’s & C’s of the business are air tight. In addition, we have also learnt very quickly how important it is to remain in the public eye through social media & website content.”
How have you celebrated your successes?
“We always like to thank our supporters. Therefore, we have already had two events this year to celebrate our achievements thus far. Our Open Day for the new workshop & our 1st birthday breakfast party were great successes. In addition, we really do make sure that we separate the business as often as we can & in doing so we book tickets for event’s & plan day’s out, so we always have something to look forward to.”
Two very different British businesses, with very different approaches. Yet the commonality is that both couples knew that working in partnership would not only bring complimentary talents together, but would strengthen their businesses.
