I would probably caution anyone against going into business with their life partner or their spouse

if they hadn't really clearly talked about it and the goals and what each person's role

was going to be.

If someone were to bring that to me, they were thinking about working with their spouse.

I'm not opposed to it.

Just like I'm not opposed to it, just like I'm not opposed to marriage.

Partnership, it's a word that describes love relationships. It also describes work relationships.

And despite advice to keep our personal and professional lives separate, sometimes it's just too tempting for romantic partners to launch work ventures.

Love and Business, that's the topic of this episode of Dating While Gray,

the grownups guide to love, sex, and relationships.

I'm Laura Stasi. If you ever eat at a Panda Express or drink a bottle of Palm Wonderful, you're a customer of a husband and wife own business.

Those two couples, they're raking in billions, though the majority of couple-owned businesses

are classified as small businesses. That usually means less than $10 million in revenue.

And while some couples plan for the day they can launch their own thing, others kind of stumble

into an opportunity. That's what happened with Allison and her husband. They were raising three

young kids in Los Angeles when they decided to pull up stakes. Once we did the math of how

much it was going to cost to send them to good schools in California, we started to look around

for other places to live and we checked out the Midwest and the Pacific Northwest.

We finally came here to the Research Triangle area of North Carolina, where I had some family, and we liked it a lot.

Allison's family moved in 2005, and her husband started working at a university.

That's where he developed a health care education

software platform. After six years, he went out on his own, and Allison was happy to join him in

...