The trials of being a “professional couple”

10.30pm on a Saturday evening with the love of my life. Glass on wine in one hand, looking out onto a sea of… Hastily scribbled post it notes and growth charts. It suddenly occurs to me. What do other couples do on the weekend if they aren’t both trying to start a business? How else do you fill your time if not customer acquisition, queuing emails and tweaking websites? I’ve always thought the term ‘Professional Couple’ is an odd one. It suggests that our full time job is being a couple – which is weird and a little creepy. ‘Power Couple’ sounds much better, but you don’t want to be the losers who give that title to themselves…Steven, my lovely other half, has always had big ambitions. When other teenagers were getting drunk under the underpass, he was trying to set up his own photography business. Helping out at weddings and filming pantomimes for some pocket money. He got to Edge Hill University and studied business, working at a phone shop on the weekends for some extra money. Then we met! Steven had been neglecting his photography a bit, but thanks to some rather exciting travel adventures, he started taking pictures again and back came the dream of starting a business. I persuaded him to quit his part-time job, team up with his best friend, who had graduated in design, and start the business for real. For a while it was hard. Suddenly, we had to tighten our belt buckles, and I was working several jobs to enable us to be able to still take the trips we love. We still wanted to move out, and although it was difficult to find the money and we were not quite at the buying-a-home stage that we had planned, we managed to rent an apartment we love (with room for an office!) and it has been more than worth it.
Fast forward over a year and things are going amazingly well! The boys are getting work left, right and centre and I am no longer the sole bread-winner. In fact, we’re at a stage where I have started to look at starting my own freelance business, with Steven’s help and expertise. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a whole lot of work. I come home from my day job at 5pm and we both tend to sit at our desks in the office, working on projects until bedtime. Weekends are often spent answering emails, updating websites and meeting with clients. We are both on our phones so much we look like walking adverts for Apple and our pillow talk often involves brainstorming new projects. My dream is to be able to work from home, so that when I have babies (wayyyy in the future!) I can be a stay at home mummy, but still bring in some bacon. I know it’s going to be hard, but it will be worth it for us both to be able to make a living doing the things we are passionate about. Honestly though, I wouldn’t have it any other way. We are a pretty badass team – always encouraging and supporting each other. We don’t just want jobs, we want a career and a lifestyle, and I’m excited to work for it.