Tell me about your current business. What are you doing exactly?

We are authors and founders of a plan called "Be A Better Partner." The plan is designed to help busy couples improve their relationship one month at a time.

How did you come up with your business idea?

We had attended a seminar called "Visionary Partnership" which taught us how to design a business plan for our life together. After the seminar, we were crafting our plan and we decided that part of our plan was turning out to be a recipe for improving one's marriage. So we decided that it might be the kind of thing other people could benefit from, so we decided to write a book and it's grown from there into a website, calendar and possibly a second book soon.

What were you doing before this, and is this your first business?

It's our first for-profit business. I (Paul) founded a nonprofit in 1999 that is doing extremely well. Debbie is a marketing executive. Prior to beginning this business, Debbie worked for Comcast for 11 years in their advertising division and I am a self-employed consultant.

What outside resources were helpful for you? Business incubators, Chamber of Commerce, SCORE, ….

We used a lot of PR services like PR Newswire, and HARO (helpareporterout). We also used a lot of free online tools like Google Pages, Constant Contact and a free online calendar. Our church was a big help too.

How is it working with your spouse?

As spouses, we decided to work together in an effort to spend more time together and to try something new. We compliment each other well in that Paul is a big picture kind of guy who is great with technology and numbers while I'm (Debbie) great at details, marketing and creative design. In addition, we both happen to be great at public relations, which is a real bonus.

Working with one's spouse poses all kinds of interesting challenges. The good news is that the other one can be empathetic to your work situation. They know exactly how busy you are and therefore, why we are only having frozen food for dinner tonight! The bad news is that if you had any issues at all in your relationship before you got started, then working together will certainly amplify the situation.

What have you done that has been very effective in helping to grow the business?

PR! Getting featured in news pieces, magazines, etc has helped more than anything else we've done.

What advice would you give to somebody else who wanted to start a similar business?

Our business is not a huge moneymaker, so if you're looking to make big bucks, relationship improvement might not be the place for you (unless you have a doctorate in the field maybe).

Sounds like you two are creating a great resource for couples! Thank you for taking time out or your busy schedules to share your experiences with us!