For
Entrepreneurial
Couples
It’s a matter of balancing personal and
business relationships
By Jerry LaMartina
Couples who start and run companies as business partners have advantages and disadvantages over traditional business owners.
Stress and risk are innate to owning and running any business, whether for sole practitioners or business partners. But for a married couple who co-own and operate their business, their personal bond of trust strengthens their efforts to build and grow a profitable business. Those efforts can also strain their personal relationship.
Here’s a look at how some Wilkes County couples handle running their own business together.
Serrano Film Co., Millers Creek, N.C.
Dustin and Elyse Serrano own and operate Serrano Film Co., focused on producing wedding videos. They also are expanding to make commercial videos that tell the stories of businesses.
Elyse had worked as a nurse for four years before she started the business in 2018 “as a way to get out of nursing,” she said. She wanted to work from home. And she had watched wedding videos while in college and thought she “could do it better.”
“Dustin supported me in that dream from the beginning,” she said.
Dustin helped Elyse buy and learn to use her first video camera. He gave her “emotional support” and joined her on clients’ wedding days. She quit nursing in January 2020 to work full-time making wedding videos.
Dustin had worked full time as a worship pastor at a church. He left that job and joined her full time later that year. He also is a volunteer worship leader at another church and works as a part-time videographer at that church.
COVID-19 started wreaking havoc worldwide in early 2020. The pandemic, though, boosted the Serranos’ business. North Carolina was virtually shut down after COVID hit. Only small groups could attend weddings. This increased videography’s importance in the wedding world.
When Dustin started working full time in the business, he and Elyse chose their main roles based on their skills, she said. Early on, they wrote out the roles of the business and who would handle what. They see that as a key part of the process.
Elyse said she is organized and likes to plan and present a professional image to clients. Dustin is the main editor, though she edits the videos’ color because she is “more visual” than him.
“He hears things I wouldn’t be able to hear,” Elyse said.
Because of this skill, he handles the audio mastering and sound design of all their videos. He also maintains all the technical gear and researches new gear. And he is doing more of the communications tasks with commercial clients.
“(Elyse) knows our ideal client,” Dustin said. She defines that client as someone who “values videography and wants it for future generations to be able to see.”
“They also value audio, the toasts, the letters, the personal vows — anything spoken throughout the wedding day,” she said. “That’s how Dustin and I tell their story. They also value the visual aesthetics of the day.”
Relationships also have a kind of aesthetic. The Serranos try to minimize any negative effect on their personal relationship from running their business together by communicating with each other about the business freely and daily, Elyse said. They had worked separate jobs before running their business together full time. It sometimes made them “not miss each other as much,” she said.
Embracing each other’s strengths makes all the difference.
“The main thing is humility,” Dustin said. “You have to honor the point person who has the gift in each area and let them champion that side of things. Also, delegate those roles, acknowledge strengths for each and let them handle it.”
A business relationship “can only strengthen you or tear you apart,” Elyse said. Making that relationship work is hard sometimes, but letting it tear them apart “is not an option for us.”
“It’s definitely strengthened us,” Dustin said. “This is not a passive thing. You can’t passively run a business together, I don’t think. It has to be intentional.”
One of the better things about running their business as a couple is having time flexibility, within work deadlines, to break from projects and “go take a walk together or visit friends,” Elyse said. “I look forward to our children getting to see mom and dad be home.”
The Serranos are expecting their first child, a girl, in October.
Asked what advice they would give couples who are thinking of starting and running a business together or those who are already doing it, Elyse said having “a solid foundation of communication” was key.
“If it’s not there, they’re in for a world of awakening and hardship,” she said.
Dustin said couples should have “a very solid marriage” before even considering going into business together.
A problematic marriage will lead to a problematic business relationship.
Growing Faith Farms, near Wilkesboro
Joseph and Christina Angott co-own and run Growing Faith Farms, a “you-pick” cut-flower farm. The Angotts also offer “glamping,” or glamorous camping, with a queen-size bed and hardwood floor in a 16-foot by 20-foot tent.
“It looks like a hotel room,” Joseph said. “You have a mountaintop view and the farm.”
The Angotts also teach sustainable, alternative practices. They use solar and irrigation energy on the farm and have animals that customers can interact with. They offer camping and the couple hosts community events including outdoor movies and concerts.
The road to Growing Faith Farms was paved with the couple’s desire to “give people a place to unwind,” Joseph said. They bought a cabin for their retirement before COVID hit. When their children got older, they moved near Wilkesboro from South Charlotte, used the cabin on weekends and spent more time there during the pandemic. They moved there in late 2020 and started their business in January 2021.
Christina had worked in marketing and now handles that for the business. She helps care for the animals and teaches flower-arranging classes. Joseph grew up on a cattle farm in southwestern Pennsylvania.
The Angotts “carve out time to have fun” to keep their work from negatively affecting their personal relationship, Christina said. Their work strengthens their personal relationship because “you’ll never figure out how much you count on another person until you go into a business,” Joseph said.
Conversation and compromise help them decide how to expand the business.
The Angotts’ advice for couples thinking about going into business together: “Find your strengths and a good division of labor, but always keep each other involved,” Joseph said.
“We’re a family first,” Christina said. “And everything we do starts with love.”
“I Can” Pediatric Therapies LLC, Wilkesboro, N.C.
Brian and Megan Adams started “I Can” Pediatric Therapies 10 years ago. They provide occupational, physical and speech therapies to patients from birth to age 21.
Brian is an occupational therapist with a master’s degree in occupational therapy. He has been practicing since May 2007. Megan is a mental health therapist, with a master’s degree in education with a counseling emphasis.
Their staff comprises four speech therapists, four other occupational therapists, a physical therapist and a physical therapy assistant.
Megan and Brian were high school sweethearts. Brian had a sports injury and knew in high school that he wanted to become an occupational therapist.
They got married, lived in Hickory and wanted to return to their hometown. Brian wanted to start a pediatric therapy business.
“We saw it would take both of us to make this dream happen,” Megan said. “We started this as our business, but it’s also our long-term goal and dream to give back to the community that raised us and have other professionals come to this area.”
When they started their practice, Brian did most of the treatment. Megan handled billing, insurance, finances, taxes, human resources and doctors’ referrals. They have two children, ages 3 and 12. Brian recently shifted to a supervisory role in the business but still does some therapy.
They realized the two of them couldn’t “make the impact the county needs,” Megan said. They needed a team. They want that team to live in Wilkes or within a 30-minute drive to reinforce a sense of community.
Preserving their own sense of community as a married couple requires separating the business from their private lives as much as possible, she said. They see their business as a kind of ministry. “I Can” in their practice’s proper name derives from a New Testament scripture, Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
“It’s a sacred trust with the marriage and the business,” Brian said. “We have each other’s back. We have a higher goal in mind. Your goals have to be aligned as business partners.”
Brian would counsel other couples who run a business together and are struggling with it to seek marriage counseling and “make sure you trust each other completely.”
Hurley Construction + Remodeling LLC, Wilkes County, N.C.
Kristopher and Nicole Hurley met when they were 13 years old. Kristopher told Nicole at age 14 that he would marry her. She said he was crazy. But 11 years later, they tied the knot.
In 2018, they started a residential construction company called Hurley Construction + Remodeling. They use subcontractors and have an average of 10 to 15 projects underway at any given time. They currently do only remodeling, not new construction.
Nicole recently stepped away from running the business full time with Kristopher. She had handled the financial end and marketing, and she still does all the marketing. She acts as “the mental sounding board for me in growing the business,” he said.
She works as a contractor in information technology to implement and manage hospitals’ new operational systems. She had been a pediatric nurse.
Before they started their business, Kristopher had been working for a finance and insurance company and wanted a change. He was doing construction on the side and pursuing missional work. When they started the business, they faced a lot of trial and error. Business was slow, so they paused it and Kristopher went to work for a year and a half for a friend who owned a diesel shop, a trucking company and a brokerage. Kristopher managed the trucking company and worked in the brokerage. He returned to his construction company in September 2020.
The Hurleys put their personal relationship first to keep the business from negatively affecting it. They make time “to nurture the marriage,” he said. They both believe their business relationship strengthened their personal relationship.
“The business gives you a common goal,” Kristopher said. “When you accomplish it, it gives you something you can celebrate together. Going through difficult things with other people strengthens your relationship. Business is hard.”
Kristopher said he would advise couples who are thinking of starting a business together or already have to “keep God at the center of it” instead of relying solely “on your own understanding.”
“Also, education starts after school,” he said. “Be a true student of what you want to accomplish, not only in business but also in your marriage.”
Nicole’s advice to couples considering starting a business: “I would say just do it. If you don’t succeed, there are lessons in that. Pray about it before you do it.”
For those already in business together, she suggests taking a purposeful approach to their progress.
“Sometimes I leave my growth up to chance instead of being purposeful about it,” she said. “Be intentional about your growth.”
