How To Run A Happy, Profitable Business With Your Spouse

Photo by William Stitt on Unsplash

Would you go into business with your spouse?

Olivia and Heath Skuza have started three businesses together over the past twenty years.

They are currently co-CEOs of B2B e-commerce platform NuOrder.

The company enables brands and manufacturers to create digital catalogs of their products, send proposals and create orders for retailers.

NuOrder employs more than 100 people, and more than 400,000 retailers use the NuOrder platform.

Key customers include Asics, Levi Strauss & Co., Ted Baker, LaCoste and Nordstrom. NuOrder also recently secured a Series C round of funding worth $15 million.

“Both Heath and I are extremely passionate and driven and hardworking people, and we work at crazy human speed,” said Olivia.

Define Your Swimming Lanes

Co-CEOs aren’t usually considered productive because it can confuse reporting lines and even lead to power struggles.

Olivia attributes her healthy working relationship with Heath to clearly defined work roles. Heath is the visionary who ”sells the dream,” whereas Olivia “makes it happen” as an operations person