In this week’s episode of Balance: The Journey of Entrepreneurial Couples, Tanya Simon interviews Mickey Swortzel.

Mickey is the co-founder and operations director for the New Eagle family of businesses. She brings a background in Finance, Human Resources and Marketing in both startups and corporate environments.She has been featured in various national publications including, Inc Magazine, CEO Nation, Women in Biz, Dynamic Business Women and the Product Startup Podcast. She is a sought after resource in the areas of human resources, corporate culture, small business growth and product development.

After beginning her career in the banking industry, she moved to healthcare management and finally tech start up. Her passion is empowering people to provide excellent service to global customers while managing these activities to provide strong financials and a growth opportunities to the benefit both the employees and customers of New Eagle.

Main Questions Asked:

• How did you guys meet each other?
• How did it feel to build a company, sell it, and then get laid off?
• What lessons did you take into your second venture?
• How did you manage your different roles?
• What are your top three tips for making it work?
• Where do you see yourselves in five to ten years?

Key Lessons Learned:

Gaining Experience

• As many entrepreneurs do, past work experience leads to a moment where you believe you can do things better. It’s easier to make the leap of faith into a business before you have a family.
• As your company grows, oftentimes your partner will organically take on more responsibilities.
• Starting your second business can sometimes be harder than the first time.
• Once you work with your partner, it’s very hard to go back to traditional work.
• Being an entrepreneur can allow you to control your lifestyle more effectively since you’re the boss.

Challenges

• Economic conditions are inescapable.
• Business ownership is hard, even when things are going well.
• Taking a break requires discipline.

Tips and Advice

• Respect each others opinions.
• Hire for leadership when it comes to your team.
• Don’t be afraid to work when you need to, and be off when you need to. Experiment to find the work/life balance that makes sense for your lifestyle.
• It can help having a peer group where you can share your experiences with outside of work.
• Carve out your particular roles and responsibilities.
• A good partnership needs a visionary and an implementer.

Links to Resources Mentioned

http://www.neweagle.net

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mickeyswortzel/