Im going to hire my wife , what could possibly go wrong ?
 

I think she is ready to check out of the professional world. She has basically ran this small company for 22 years . Worked her way up from secretary I'm proud of her. I knew from our first date, that this girl had her head on straight, and was driven,and motivated .
Her boss is old and retiring, the company is being sold. She will still have a job if she wants, to , but basically, she is done, tired of a 70 hour work week, the 2 hour a day commute, and all the responsibilities . She said she would love to come to work in a t shirt and jeans instead of office garb.
We have joked about this for years, but we may just give it a try .
I work by myself. almost 16 years now, with no employees . I fix cars, schedule appointments , answer phones ( well, I try to ) , order parts, write invoices, call customers, replace light bulbs. mob the office floor, pay the bills, balance the check book , get the mail , you get the picture , I have been doing it all .
We are thinking about maybe hiring another guy, putting her up in the office, and trying to step it up a notch . I am sure I can fill my bays with the work if I want to .
I already told her that I get mean at work, and that I am scared that I will be mean to her . Then , when we come home in the evening, we will have nothing to ***** about .
Think you could do it ?

No.

My wife would kill me.

This depends entirely on your relationship. Some people it would work out great for. For me, it would be a one-way ticket to divorce.

It adds additional stress for sure but it has good points too
Been doing for the past 10 or so

I feel sorry for the new guy :eek: (nothing against you or your wife).
I could write a small book on "working for a married couple."

Could do it? Hell NO, it get too much supervision already.

Fred, I understand you getting mean sometimes; didn't you throw your cell phone out the window one day?

I can see it now.

Man hires wife to help at shop.

Man gets mad and throws wife out window.

Well Freddy, I fear for ya, but then I know you wife is a sweetheart and not mean like my wife. When she was laid off from her professional job dealing with big clients (sony and such over seas) she was done and so was I about her working at that job. We were young and I had always wanted someone else to do my paper work like billing, ordering, and scheduling sub contractors and such. I know you hate that part of the business too, but necessary so we do that crap to keep thing going. That worked out great, for the first two months. We moved the paper work section from the shop to the house. She is very good about organizing, getting systems working. That's was what she did for her big client, Sony, to get their products from factories shipped to the US. Well ,my home office was completely rearranged and my file systems were turned upside down to the point of not being to find anything. I had to ask every time I needed to look at something. She was pissed as me asking all the time. Well, since I am kinda dumb, nothing that flows smoothly make any sense. After about 1.5 months of this crap, I finally decided to stop this BS. WE would argue more then we talk. She would get so pissed because I would demand a certain things to be done and she changes it to streamline it. I decided to stop while I am ahead to avoid divorce. She bummedaround for a couple of years then we decided to have kids. she's been a stay home mom since.

Funny story, well no, sad story. I asked my trusty "Office manager" to schedule a meeting with Bill at the job to get the flooring measured up for an install. My hardwood floor installer(If you are reading this, Jim Richards, yeah, Bill Rose) ran late about 45 min. She left without telling me and called Bill that he's no longer on the job for this install. "We will use someone else that show up on time for meetings". She found one from one of her fooking friend that's done some BS floor work for them. Bill is the only one I trust and like working with him. We go back 15 years and have done each and every floor since. He will do the job without seeing plans with just a hand shake (sometimes over the phone). I had to call him back and apologize with my tail between my legs. He laughed it off because he's gone down the same road before. She's used to that crap in her office and hates folks who are late.

Good luck. May the force be with ya 24/7

Fred, there should be only one supreme commander and that is you unless your wife is around.

You probably have a weird process for invoicing, ordering, paying, etc that makes sense to no-one but you, because it's never had to. I would have her come in and get your process streamlined and rationalized so that someone else can do it. Like a temporary consulting gig. Then hire someone to do it. Maybe that someone ends up being her, but the plan should be that it's not.

Personally I could never work with my wife. We think too differently. She wouldn't understand why I might spend 4 hours working without saying a word to her even if she is at a desk 10 feet away, I wouldn't understand why she's constantly bothering me.

Just about the same or vice versa...

She keep saying that she would have never worked for me and I answer that she would have been fired on the 1st day :D:):D

I hired a great woman 15 years ago to manage my business. Five years after that she bought into the company and we became business partners. Five years later we got married. Now we are about to retire together. These are the best years of my - life her's too.

Can you find a middle ground where maybe she works at home and does all the accounting work, takes phone calls and answers emails (mainly to keep customers happy with quick responses until you can give the final answers), but you still order parts and schedule customers?

That way you stay in control of the stuff that is bound to aggravate you while she handles more of the neutral items.

Good for you guys, its the best sequence scenario.

What could possibly go wrong?

Potentially everything, but maybe it could be your salvation.

From what I gather from your posts, you hate dealing with customers' BS.
Potentially, if she is the right person, you might never throw another cel phone.
If you have a gut feeling on this, go with it.
Best
Les

As Les says trust your gut feeling. Your wife is obviously a good worker but she will have to make adjustments to your work environment. It will be a change for her and hopefully she can adapt to it.

This reminds me of my early childhood in the UK in the 1950's. My father had a garage and hired 2 mechanics and one gas pumper. My mother worked in the office doing the bookwork. It seemed pretty successful. It was an adjustment for my father coming out of the Air Force at the end of WW2 and starting his own business.

Business was reasonable. My mother got hit on by one of the mechanics sometimes. Usual sh-t. She was a tough cookie and never complained. A lot depends on your wife if she can take direction from you. Some women don't like being told what to do!

Your wife could give it a trial run for a month or so. My local indy shop the owner has 2 mechanics. The owner does the ordering, answers the phone etc much like you. Sometimes I think he is like a chicken with his head cut off. My other indy shop further away originally had the same arrangement until some crook came in and cleaned out the till. He hired a front end man after that.

We need our own time....I couldn't do it..


MattR

This is good advice. Very good advice.

All great posts.

The only additive I have is to make sure an exit strategy is in place in advance if things don't work out. Feeling are still going to be hurt (either one of you or both) but at least you guys will have a framework in place if things gosouth.

Do a management Prenup:)

If any of the car shows on TV are any indication, yeah, it will work. :)