A marriage and a business often involve a partnership where two or more individuals come together to work toward common goals. You must invest time, resources, and energy into your marriage in the same way you would your business. In a marriage, the spouses commit to supporting each other and building a life together. Similarly, partners or shareholders must collaborate to build a lucrative business and achieve financial success.
Furthermore, a marriage involves negotiation and compromise to reconcile differences and find common ground, which you must also endeavor to do when making business decisions with partners, vendors and clients. They also involve contracts to formalize the relationship and enforce agreements that may follow because of the merger or union.
Hard work and dedication do not always guarantee success
No matter how much effort you put into your business, you cannot guarantee it will succeed. The same is true for your marriage. As a business owner, you know how important it is to incorporate preventive legal measures that shield your personal assets from business liabilities. You might want to do the same before legalizing your marriage.
You see, when you marry someone, all the assets you acquire during your marriage will belong to you and your spouse. They are your marital property. These include your savings, investments, vehicles, real estate, jewelry and other personal or real property. In the event either of you file for divorce in Michigan, all your marital property will be subject to an equitable distribution. All the property you owned before your marriage will still belong to you after a divorce unless you have mixed these with your marital property.
How a divorce might affect your business
If you owned your business before your marriage, it is your separate property unless your spouse contributed to it in any way or you invested marital assets into the business. Dividing business assets in a divorce can be incredibly complex, and you could lose your business altogether. Fortunately, a prenuptial agreement can protect your business if ever your marriage ends in divorce. You can also consider a buy-sell agreement to specify how much your spouse will receive for their share of the business.
A business and a marriage are all about clearly defining similar goals that can foster continuous growth and development.