It takes two

In it together: Journalist Penne Dennison and Guzman Y Gomez co-founder Steven Marks

The saying “Behind every great man is a great woman” is well past its use-by date but the sentiment still stands when it comes to successful entrepreneurs.

The smartest and most crucial decision most successful entrepreneurs make is their choice of life partner – their spouse, the person who shares and nurtures their dreams and supports them through the wild and unpredictable ride of creating a company from scratch.

Penne Dennison is a journalist and television presenter with Foxtel’s movie network, a high-profile success in her own right. She is also the partner of Brooklyn-born, self-confessed hustler Steven Marks, the co-founder of Guzman Y Gomez, a chain of restaurants serving the authentic (that is, healthy), version of Mexican food that Marks knew from dining as a child in the homes of his Latin neighbours. Last year, the company grew by 47 per cent.

“I grew up hustling, it is in my blood,” says Marks, who is 38, and started his first business, shovelling snow from driveways, at the age of eight, then sold his client list two years later to the younger kids on the block. “But when I go home to my young family, I leave all that passion and drive at the door.”

There is no formula, no benchmark, for the most suitable entrepreneur spouse – each of the three couples chosen randomly from the 2010 BRW Fast Starters list operates quite differently from the other.

Treaven Martinus, founder and chief executive of Martinus Rail, was encouraged to start the business by his wife Jade, who comes from an entrepreneurial family – her grandparents were in manufacturing. Treaven talks through almost all the business decisions with his wife but, in the end, Jade leaves the decisions to him. Even so, she has a big influence.

Treaven recently considered bringing in partners to fund expansion of the company’s factory. After a week of discussions with Jade, he decided against it. “Jade said she wasn’t comfortable and explained why,” he says. “In hindsight, it would have been a very bad decision.”

Steven Marks spares Penne the details of the risks they face as the business grows. He says, “Penne has said, ‘I don’t want to know about it any more. I am completely supportive, I know the crazy hours you work and the pressure you are under, but I can’t deal with all that pressure and stress.’ I have had to learn that. It took a long time. She is not tough in that way; she is tough in other ways.”

The co-founder of Brisbane manufacturing and import company, E3 Style, Vanessa Garrard, ignited an entrepreneurial spark in her husband, Phil Garrard, that was not there before they married. E3 Style was well established when Vanessa met Phil, who worked at Dick Smith, an E3 Style client. “We worked together for 12 months before we started dating,” she says. “He had worked at Dick Smith for 10 years, working his way up the ladder. He didn’t have the same thinking.”

Phil agrees. He is excited to have been inducted into the entrepreneur’s life. “It has awakened something in me,” he says. “I always wanted to do this sort of thing. It is catching.”

Vanessa started E3 Style with a colleague, Richard Chen. The company now employs Phil, who left Dick Smith and Sydney to marry Vanessa, who lives in Brisbane.

Vanessa discusses business strategy and ideas with her husband but she and Chen make the business decisions. “We are all very close,” she says. “Phil is a shareholder through the family trust and he is a sounding board for ideas.”

Vanessa and Phil are also starting a different enterprise together, selling discounted goods online and here they make executive decisions together.

Jade Martinus was attracted to Treaven’s entrepreneurial drive before she married him. “It is inspiring and motivating,” she says. “I love the unknown, growing as a person and a professional.”

The pair married before starting Martinus Rail, which supplies advice and products to public and private rail systems. “We didn’t know what business we would start but we knew we would start one,” Treaven says.

Both partners have a similar tolerance for risk – high. “We have so much future ahead of us. If we fail, we can rebuild,” Jade says. “Not that we want to fail!”

Not so with Dennison and Marks. Dennison admits she is conservative on risk. “I am your typical Aussie – save, save and get into a house,” she says.

Still, her career in the media is teaching her some tolerance for uncertainty and she has persuaded Marks, who ran a hedge fund in London, to soften his gung-ho approach to share investment and spare her some anxiety.

“He is respectful of my conservative approach and I am respectful of his high-risk approach,” Dennison says. “I know people don’t achieve great things without taking risks.”

While the Garrards move closer to each other in their risk tolerance, Dennison and Marks use their differences to gain balance.

“Penne is very chilled,” Marks says. “I love her calmness, she is a real Buddhist. She likes things tranquil. Now when I walk into our apartment, I try to slow it down, enter in a peaceful way. I am not a quiet person, I have a big personality.”

All three couples have one thing in common – a determination to shield their family lives from the pressures and uncertainty business demands.

Vanessa Gerrard has three children and is currently on maternity leave. “Sometimes Phil will come and swap days so that I can go into the office,” she says. “I learned from the break-up of a [previous] relationship about the dangers of working too many hours. When I started E3, I was very conscious of wanting more flexibility. You just have to do it. Make sure you leave by 5.30.”

Dennison insists that Marks leaves his chief executive persona in the office. “I said, please do not come home and have the CEO role with me,” she explains. “We have very small children. Sometimes there is chaos. You can’t workplace manage me. It is all about the level of respect we feel for each other. He is such a dedicated father and husband. We cut each other slack.”

Marks says: “I have learned to give up my authority. At work, I am a leader. The platforms align when I am at home.”

Jade Martinus says: “I am not just a version of a 1960s wife, prettying myself up when the husband comes home. I am happy with my role. I love being creative and having a project and being fulfilled. Right now, I get that through the kids but I don’t want to live my life through the kids.”

She expects to work in the family business when the kids are at school. “We get along like a house on fire.”

BRW

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