Couple in tune with each other

By ELLEN READ

Conventional wisdom holds that office romance can be risky business - but what about couples who start a small business together?

What's the secret to working with someone you love?

Nick Houlbrooke and Barbara Brookland have been together for 14 years and have a young family.

In 1996, they started Koorb Consulting, an Auckland-based company specialising in the deployment and integration of accounting and management software.

As co-founders, the couple have spent the past few years working side by side to build their customer base to include organisations such as Tower Insurance, Blue Star Office Supplies, Rio Beverages, Independent Liquor, Gen-i and Unitec.

When they started their family - Alice will be 3 next month and Isaac is 1 - things changed.

The responsibilities shifted from being equal partners at home and at work to Barbara taking charge at home and Nick leading things at the office - although they discuss everything together anyway.

"As a couple you have to have really good communication before you go into business," Barbara says.

"You have to be able to talk about anything and everything," Nick echoes.

This is obvious when you meet them. They constantly look towards each other, praise each other and finish each other's sentences.

Asked how they cope at the office if they've had an argument at home about who does the dishes, they claim not to fight about things like that. Perhaps they should change the business to a relationship counselling firm!

Barbara says they do talk about the business at home but that the way they operate in their personal relationship is the key to how they run a business together.



Barbara now puts in 20-25 hours a week at the office. She brings the children in with her if she's just popping in quickly, but they don't spend much time there. Her mother acts as their nanny, a situation which gives Barbara the time and flexibility to manage her work commitments.

Having young children has changed the way she operates at work, she says. Where previously she might have stayed late and worked at the weekend she is now strict about saying when she has to leave.

It's a philosophy the couple extend companywide, encouraging their 16 employees not to become workaholics.

This doesn't mean, though, that they aren't committed and dedicated to what they do.

"You don't have any choice but to set a high standard. Business is hard and small business is very hard," Nick says.

The hardest thing, he says, is getting things fitting and working together and managing human resources.

"And getting holidays," he laughs.

Being a small firm, it's essential any new staff member fits in, says Barbara. They must also be flexible enough to cover for other people.

The best thing about owning and running their own company is not having to justify things to others or being constrained by another person's ideas or visions, says Nick.

The couple and a non-executive director make up the Koorb board. It's a set up they recommend, as an outside view is invaluable when making decisions about the company.