kohnstamm communications | sivault systems | San Jose | Las Vegas

“treat each other the same way other employees are treated.” — juliana and emilian s. elefteratos, sivault systems, san jose, california

“leave some things to talk about at the end of the day. when you don’t work together, there’s something magical about seeing each other after being away from each other for 10 hours. we missed that … but learned to ‘save’ things to talk about.” — michele d. tell and james woodrow, las vegas-based preferred public relations & marketing

“have an exit strategy agreed to in advance in case it doesn’t work out. agree that the marriage comes first, not the business.” — carri and michael bennet, bennet & bennet, washington, d.c.

one full day a week “we don’t talk business at all, and try to keep each other in check, as tempting as it is to ‘debrief’ about the week’s hottest personnel or client travails. the fact that we work together and have a family together makes life one interminable mobius strip, unless we structure it such that it doesn’t become one steaming morass of problem-solving.” — josh and ricka kohnstamm, kohnstamm communications, st. paul, minnesota

“have a date with just the two of you regularly scheduled. find a place to remind each other why you got into this pickle in the first place.” — burkey belser and donna greenfield, washington, d.c.-based greenfield/belser ltd.