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Entrepreneurial Couples are Always a Partnership by Azriela Jaffe When I use the expression "entrepreneurial couple," the first image that comes to mind for many is that of a husband and wife working together as full-time partners in a business. We imagine each having an active role in the daily operation of a retail store, service business, or manufacturing enterprise. My years of research have led me to take a position I feel passionate about: Any couple, where one or both individuals are self-employed, is an entrepreneurial couple. Any spouse who is not actively working in the business is always, to some extent, a partner in the business. Perhaps this widened description of partnership doesn't meet a standard business definition, or a legal demarcation of partnership that the IRS would regulate, but it acknowledges the reality of a couple's entrepreneurial life. I prefer the definition of partnership in the American Heritage Dictionary when describing entrepreneurial couples: "A relationship between individuals or groups that is characterized by mutual cooperation and responsibility, for the achievement of a specified goal." When one spouse is actively running the business, and the other spouse is taking care of children, working another job, supporting the entrepreneur emotionally, and helping out with the business at odd hours, you better believe they are working partners. One of the best examples I've ever seen of this concept in action was when I became a patient of the Birth Care and Family Health Services Center in Quarryville, PA. Rita Rhoads, the Director of Midwifery Services, founded the center twenty years ago - the first of its kind in Pennsylvania, and since then she has helped deliver more than 2000 babies in Lancaster county. I chose to be a patient of the center when pregnant with my daughter Elana three years ago, and then rejoined them again two years ago to help me bring my newborn son Elijah into the world. I selected the center because of Rita's magnificent reputation and experience and also because the center is the only practice in Lancaster county offering three options for birthing deliveries: home, birthing center, or hospital. Even though it meant frequent drives from Lancaster to Quarryville for me, it was worth it. As a patient for several years, I got to know Rita and her operation fairly well. What most don't know or will never see, is the behind-the-scenes activity in Rita's home that is managed so well by her husband - and she would say, working partner. Rita shares a home in Quarryville with her husband, Juan Miguel Avila. Together, they are raising five children, four boys and one girl, ranging in age from 8-14. Juan's primary daily responsibility is to ensure that the children are cared for, so that Rita is free to work the hours she must work to successfully contribute as a midwife to the community. Juan is perceived by some as unemployed, or "Rita's babysitter," misconceptions that should rile any couple that have shared the responsibilities of growing a business and raising a family. Those who suggest that Juan chooses not to work a traditional job because of laziness, or because he prefers Rita to be the primary breadwinner of the family, really miss the big picture. The reality is, Rita offers a phenomenal service to the Lancaster community, one that would be impossible without the integral role that Juan plays in their home. If roles were reversed, and Juan was an obstetrician, and Rita was a housewife and mother, everyone would admire Juan for his professional success, and Rita for her devotion to family and support of her husband's career. Because Rita and Juan have chosen to reverse roles, it raises eyebrows among unenlightened people with rigid perceptions of family roles. Being a midwife is like no other job or business. The hours Rita works are erratic and unpredictable. She never knows when a woman will go into labor and need her presence. Rita explains: "This morning, I was assisting a birth when it was time for the children to go to school. Juan made sure that the kids got up, got dressed, had a decent breakfast, and got to the bus on time. He's the one who takes one of my boys to an outside job after school, gets my other children to their soccer practice and picks them up, organizes dinner, and supervises the children in the evening when I'm away at a birth. When I'm called out at 2:00 A.M. to assist a woman in labor, Juan is home with the children. When the children need to go to the doctor, or any number of school activities, if I can do it, I will. But if I'm not available, Juan makes the kids' school activities and work schedules his priority." Though Juan has been offered several jobs, he has turned them all down. Rita says, "If I had to worry about my family being unsupervised, and if my children had to miss all their after school activities because of my work, I wouldn't be able to concentrate on my patients. When I'm with a woman in labor, I'm completely with her, because I know that Juan is home taking care of everything that needs attention at home." A few years ago, I went into labor on Saturday evening at midnight, and my son, Elijah was born at 8:30 A.M. the following morning. Rita was the midwife who delivered our son in a planned home-birth, attending the birth beginning at 5:30 A.M. The only way that she was available to me during these weekend hours was that Juan was home supervising their five children. I appreciate that once our baby was ready to enter the world, Rita's attention wasn't divided between caring for me, and worrying about her children's welfare. After helping me to bring our daughter Elana into the world, I sent Rita and her staff a thank-you note. Now that I understand the role that Juan played in the birth of our son, I sent Juan a thank-you note as well. Az
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