Enterprise Nation

When we sent out the message asking for case studies of couples who were not only married to each other but also working together, one of the first responses was from Rebecca Scally of Big Little Fish. We followed up to ask Rebecca’s secret to success for being in love and in business.

I tweet you

In January we tweeted about an upcoming Valentine feature. Rebecca Scally replied:

“We are a husband/wife business - you could say that the little fish are our kids (age 2 & 4) often heard in the background!”

We got in touch with a few questions for Rebecca and husband, Jeremy.

For how long have you been married?

Seven years in April (5th)

For how long have you been partners in the business?

One year, we started the business together in January 2009.

Do you have clear and defined roles in the business?

Yes.  Rebecca’s responsibilities are Accounts & Marketing and mine are Business Development & Operations.

Do you both work on the business full time, or part time?

I work full time save occasional school run duties.  Rebecca works part time owing to the children but puts in full time hours by working flexibly in the evening. We keep the weekends sacrosanct for the children.

Are the children involved?

We have two: Molly 4 and Maxwell 2 and while both are eager apprentices they are not involved directly in the business!  However, they are, for the most part, the reason Rebecca and I decided to start the business and work from home.

What is your secret to having a successful marriage and business partnership?

We’re like minded and want the same work/life balance and lifestyle but more importantly we’re also best friends… most of the time.  More practically we invited our chartered accountant to attend and contribute to our board meeting, this give us both an independent point of view and an unbiased majority rule in all decision making concerning the business.  We also made a point of literally separating work and home and so our study is ‘Big Little Fish’ and the rest of the house is ‘home’… although the children haven’t quite grasped this concept yet and so it’s not uncommon to trip over the odd toy in the study or find crayons in our stationery cupboard.

What are your business plans for this year?

Sustainable growth.  Our business is in its infancy but we’ve spent a lot of time and effort establishing our portfolio and brand. The low overheads of working from home together with the low capital expenditure nature of our services will give us a competitive advantage – we expect to win new business, grow our business, and to love every minute of it!

• Rebecca and Jeremy Scally, Big Little Fish