|
 |
|
|
 If
you’re an executive with one of the area’s technology firms, here’s
your weekend “honey do” list: hang the storm windows, paint the
entry hall, write the new business unit plan, clean out the garage,
prepare the payroll, hang the holiday lights, arrange debt financing
for new capital equipment, and don’t forget dinner while you’re
at it!
For husbands and wives who are jointly running companies, maintaining
a household and raising children to boot, those weekend “honey do”
lists have taken on a whole new look.
“Juggling the business agenda and the family agenda is very tricky,”
acknowledges Dayakar “Day” Veerlapati, president and CEO of S2Tech,
an information technology firm. His wife, Shanta, happens to be
chief financial officer for the company.
“Running a business is like having another child. You can’t put
it away,” says Gulab Bhatia, president of Rose International, a
software development and consulting company. His wife, Himanshu,
is company CEO.
“People wonder how we blend it all together,” adds Maurie Smith,
president and COO of SyllogisTeks, a software and information technology
provider. Her husband, Tom, doubles as company CEO.
TOM
SMITH,
CEO and MAURIE SMITH,
president and COO, SyllogisTeks |
|
Spouses working together to run a business and manage a family may
be as old as the corner store with the upstairs living quarters,
but most corner stores are long gone. It seems that mom-and-pop
have gone high-tech. After all, until relatively recently in today’s
information technology fields, a person or two with the right IT
backgrounds and a little cash could launch a new company and probably
make a go of it, too. Why not husbands and wives?
Why not, indeed! The Veerlapatis became a workday team almost from
the time Day Veerlapati cranked up S2Tech in 1997. As Day says,
“The first thing you want to do when you start a business is keep
your overhead low. I needed books, and Shanta had accounting training,
so I asked her if she wanted to get involved.”
Involved she is. The Veerlapatis now manage a staff of 30 employees
who provide compliance services and software development and maintenance
for company clients, many of whom are government agencies.
Tom Smith founded SyllogisTeks in 1992, but wife, Maurie, did not
come on board for three more years. “She was a key acquisition for
the company,” Tom says. “She was a hard one to sell and wanted to
wait until the company was well established.”
Well established it is. The company now has 70 employees serving
clients that include A.G. Edwards, B.F. Goodrich, Boeing, and the
Federal Reserve Bank.
Gulab and Himanshu “Sue” Bhatia are cofounders of Rose International,
which has grown from a localized, five-employee company to a nationwide
firm with a payroll of 300 people. Natives of New Delhi, India,
the Bhatias were husband and wife for more than six years before
establishing the company that is now such a large part of their
identity. The couple also has two children.
“We were and are a good match professionally,” observes Gulab Bhatia.
“She brings in the clients, and I’m the numbers-crunching guy. We
typically stay out of each other’s hair.”
Staying out of each other’s hair is, of course, difficult, if not
impossible, for any set of spouses, much less partners at home and
at work. But the Veerlapatis, the Smiths and the Bhatias all say
their extended partnerships have been as good for the marriage as
they have been for the business.
“Our marriage has been good for the business, and the business has
been good for the marriage,” confirms Sue Bhatia, 39.
“Everyone in the family understands the needs of the business,”
says Shanta Veerlapati, a 38-year-old mother of two teenaged daughters.
“Involving the family in the business was tremendous,” exclaims
Day Veerlapati, 43. “Yesterday, I worked until one o’clock in the
morning, and there were no complaints. Everyone understands the
needs of the business.”
SyllogisTeks’ Tom Smith says of his wife and business partner: “I
have a great deal of admiration and respect for my wife. The business
relationship makes things stronger.”
Comments Maurie Smith, who, along with her husband, is in her 50s
with four grown children and eight grandchildren: “Our personal
lives and our business lives are both stronger as a result. It works
for us.”
Of course, neither work nor marriage is all peaches and cream, and,
in the case of business and marriage partners, the challenges are
even more complex.
“When I was taking an entrepreneur class at Washington University,”
recalls Day Veerlapati, “I often heard a guest lecturer say, ‘I
succeeded in my business, but I lost my family. I got divorced.’
I figured the challenge was how to go about involving my family
and kids.”
Tom Smith says joint troubles in a home and business relationship
can be double-trouble. “A downside can be that a troublesome issue
that is being faced by one partner is an issue that the other person
gets mired in also.”
When that happens, Smith adds, the couple sometimes need someone
else to pick them up. “So, we’ll both get a grandchild for a little
relaxation. We don’t worry about anything for long, and we don’t
have any trouble deciding where to eat dinner. We both love to eat.”
Day Veerlapati describes himself and his wife as “exercise freaks,”
an obsession that is made-to-order for stress reduction.
Do challenges that are internal to the relationship mean problems
for employees, customers and prospects?
“We’ve never come across any suggestions that working for a husband
and wife team was anything other than positive. And I don’t know
of any prospects who were put off by it,” says Gulab Bhatia. “We
do, though, portray the relationship as a strength.”
Tom Smith says, “We’re open and honest in all of our interactions,
whether it is a potential employee or client. After all, we’re a
local company and a family-owned business, and we have two daughters
employed. I think most perceive that as a benefit.”
The Veerlapatis say good families can mean good business. “We have
extended the family concept to the way we do business. For instance,
we routinely invite employee family members to certain business
meetings, such as dinner meetings, and involve families, including
client families, in picnics and cruises on the Lake of the Ozarks.
Families are a very strong power, and clients have a stronger relationship
with us as a result.”
William V. Poe is principal of Poe Communications, a St. Louis
advertising and marketing communications firm. His wife, Donna,
is also a partner in the business.
|
|
|
|
|
-
- - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - -
-
- - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - -
-
- - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - -
-
- - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - -
|
