What do you think when the assistant is the wife?

It would make no difference to me either way.

Bad news .

I don’t have a blanket feeling on the subject. My thinking is that it depends on the couple and their skills.

For example, I used to use a financial adviser – the guy was the one who did the actual financial planning, and his wife was the one who did the paperwork, filled out forms, and so on, so carry out his advise. Worked perfectly – they knew what they were doing.

My old dentist (40 years ago) had his wife there as a hygienist. Again, worked well.

On the other hand, I can certainly see that there is some risk (in case they had an argument the night before.)

[Side remark, a company near me – husband owns and runs it, wife is some executive role, all of their grown-up kids work there (one is a lawyer, another in sales). The company has something like 150 employees, and just sold out for $400 million. So family business does not equal small business.]

How would I know it was the wife? She should be answering the phone with the business name, using a professional tone of voice and, maybe, after several calls telling me her first name (but not her last).

One would know it’s the wife if she says her last name and/or says “I’m his wife.”

I worked in this environment and I also purposely took myself out of said recipe.

First, I was the wife and business partner in an accountancy practice. I did NOT hold a daily position in the business. We knew we didn’t want to be ‘that couple’. We were very lucky. We were able to poach the woman that I replaced myself with in the last firm we worked at. She was more than capable, so we had no worries about how the administration side would be run without me directly involved. Also, with me having an outside income, we weren’t draining the firm of cashflow, unnecessarily. ( I was expensive.)

When I left the partnership and marriage, I moved cities. I ended up working in the administration of another accounting office where the primary accountant had his wife as the receptionist. I took a paycut, but ended up doing my job and hers. She was hopeless and it was unbearable. When I had to leave due to my mother’s cancer, he even tried to cheat me out of my final pay.

Misogynistic to think that the husband cannot take calls for the wife’s business.

These mom-and-pop business’s are the best, easiest places to form a business relationship. I seek them out and generally find that just one try tells me if I have made a mistake or found a ‘go-to’ for that service. The communication is fantastic, so if there is an error and neither will admit it, move on.

My dad owned a welding and machine shop. They made most of this stuff. My mom answered all the calls and did all the accounting. As a business it worked.

I also worked for a wholesaler fishing supply company and he used his wife as the book keeper /administrator. She was lovely and smart, but it was embarrassing how he treated her in front of staff. (and two of his staff were his daughters that worked during school holidays.) When I handed in my notice, I told him what I thought about how he treated his wife.

On a professional level, I think highly of them. Successful family business tend to have a lot of passion behind them. People take pride in their family run businesses, and are less likely to be shady (IMO). On a personal level, I know they’ve probably got a stressful marriage and feel a little bad for them.

Well, I owned a small engine repair shop. My husband was my mechanic. (The shop was all his idea, but he didn’t have the credit to get a loan for it.) I did everything else. Worked out fine.

I don’t care. On the other hand, you shouldn’t hire somebody you can’t fire.

Don’t have an opinion really. It’s expected in a small business, and anything else is probably nepotism, but that’s life I guess.

@jca My point, exactly, is that in a professional setting she should not give out her last name or say “I“m his wife.”

@marinelife: I feel the opposite. I feel that in a professional setting, using both the first and last name sounds professional. Where I work, I use both both my first and last name. Only if I am very familiar with someone (very friendly) do I call myself by just my first name.

Can’t the assistant be the husband?

I actually think of it differently. If its a small business ran by a mom and pop, then I think they will care for the business better than anyone. After all. If it goes in the crapper than neither of them are bringing home a pay check.

For a plumber it isn’t a problem for it to be a small business. For someone who needs to move expensive products, or hire a lot of labor,then that is another issue for a small business. They won’t be able to adequately compete with bigger companies and buy in large bulk so you will probably have to pay retail prices and pay them enough to pay the full wages of their staff along with some extra money for them to come out ahead in the deal. A large company can buy in large bulk and pass some of the savings to you.
A small company cannot do the same without ending up in debt. Well unless they get a large enough contract that they can hire more and buy in bulk.

@marinelife It isn’t unusual to use your full name, so having the same last name would mean related somehow to most people. Wife, sibling, something. Business cards would also have the full name.

@Ibstubro I worked for a couple where she really was the face if the company and had the expertise in the field and her husband kept the books.

In my opinion, just going by the first name sounds unprofessional and very casual. “I’m Kim.” As opposed to “I’m Kim Johnson.”

I didn’t even think about people assuming things like the marriage is probably stressful or how it might be difficult for the couple being married and working a business together. Those comments were out of left field for me.

Interesting.

People used to be friendly, and enjoy knowing each other.
Wasn’t that long ago that a couple owning a business together might simply refer to each other as “The Mister” and “The Missus”. I do business with a garage that still says that, but the couple are probably 70+.
But then again, in a lot of ways I live in Mayberry, 2015.

Mom and Pop shops.

“What do you think when the partner is the partner?”

Male/female, gay/straight.

“What do you think when the order-taker is married to to the problem-solver?

My experience : the wife doesn’t know how to book appointments, but she’s there anyway. They’re very concerned about profit. The wife herself took me aside, re: sales. Why am I not diagnosing more biiiig multi phase cases?? She would book an emergency eval against a crown prep. ( these would almost always be a root canal start, open and debride.) The assistants all hated her. Her crazy marketing ideas. This has happened to me in a few practises. The morning ‘huddle’ oh shut up. Putting a ‘toothache’ on my schedule against a crown seat at 545. I’m supposed to finish at 6. Plus overhearing her screaming on the phone out front about their ranch in Wyoming and all that. barf

Oh, and after work she’s going to ‘Just pop into my chair’ so I can replace the plastic filling that hubby put in years ago. My cartoon self stabs her in the eye with a bard Parker # 12. Ehhhhh