And succeeded.
Pepsi signed on and supplied Ron with 12,000 T-shirts; he gave out a free T-shirt with every tux rental, while Pepsi placed on selected cans stickers that kids could peel off and instantly win a T-shirt or a free or discounted tux rental.
"We got to ride on the coattails of very strong brand recognition, which gave us more credibility in the marketplace," says Ron. "And Pepsi got into schools where Coke had had a foothold." He reports that in the first year of the promotion his prom business rose 15%. Another positive result: a good working relationship with Pepsi, which Ron attributes to Sherry's advice.
Of course, Sherry's marketing efforts are not entirely altruistic. Being married to Ron, she benefits financially from Ron's gain. But Sherry gets an even more appreciable return on her advisory investment: tapping Ron's operational expertise, particularly in human resources.
In 1989 Sherry Sacino was having trouble taking action on an employee she knew she had to let go. "At the time, we were really running out of money," says Sherry. "I couldn't afford to keep her." Sherry's penchant for developing friendships with her employees and her particularly close relationship with this one didn't make her decision any easier. Further compounding Sherry's ambivalence was the fact that the employee served as her family's breadwinner: her husband was out of a job; she had one child about to enter college and another already there. "I thought, 'What will she do without me? She'll get thrown out of her apartment.' I worried about it for a long time, wondering what to do." Finally, Sherry asked for Ron's advice.
Since Ron operates 25 retail stores, he deals regularly -- more regularly than he might like -- with the touchy issues of hiring and firing. During a long walk on the beach one morning, "Ron helped me see that I'm not as integral a part of my employees' lives as I tend to think I am," recalls Sherry. "I always thought that I had to wait until I had my last nickel in the bank before I could justifiably let someone go." Ron also helped Sherry see that if the employee didn't fit with what she was trying to do, she shouldn't let their friendship stand in the way.
"Ron persuaded me to give myself permission to do what I had to do," Sherry says. "He helped me feel that what I was about to do was the right thing."
Of course, part of being a useful live-in adviser is knowing when to withhold advice. Sherry says that when she's in the process of formulating an idea or a strategy, she really can't discuss it with Ron. "When I'm thinking through an idea, stay out of my way. It's not pretty," says Sherry. Ron says he used to rush in, but Sherry's stony glare eventually convinced him that discretion was the better part of marriage. "Sometimes Sherry doesn't want my two cents," says Ron. "I've learned to identify those periods. Usually after I've opened my mouth." Ron says he now knows when to give Sherry her space, and he offers advice only when advice is being sought.
But even when one spouse does seek out the other, that doesn't necessarily mean he or she is looking for words of wisdom -- or any words at all. "Often I'll ask a question and I don't really want an answer. Or maybe it's that I don't want the answer that she gives me," says Bill Hamilton, who co-owns Paragon General Contractors & Cabinetmakers, in Point Richmond, Calif. "Sometimes I already have my mind made up. I just want to hear how my decision sounds."
Hamilton's wife, Robin Bradford, CEO of Bradford Personnel, a temporary-employment agency in San Francisco, admits there are times she has to resist telling Bill what to do. "I've dealt with that problem before, and I don't want him to have to go through it," says Robin. "There's a tendency to try to solve the other person's problems. But sometimes the other person doesn't really want a fix. He just wants someone who'll listen or ask questions. You have to strike a balance between suggestive input and creative listening."
* * *
Three
You have a very convenient yardstick by which to measure your own company's progress -- or lack thereof
Sometimes you don't even know you're having trouble with something until you watch another person do it -- as in nailing down the proper golf swing or achieving perfect form in weight training.
In two-company couples, each spouse benefits just from being able to see how someone else runs his or her business. Granted, you can get that sort of data elsewhere: conferences, outside boards, CEO networking groups. But the information you get from those can't compare with the frequency, depth, and candor of the information you can get from your spouse. "Being married to Bill, I get an intimate view of how another company operates," says Robin Bradford. "It's a view that I could never get as an outsider."
Both Robin and Bill have an opportunity to see another business -- in all its gory details -- from the inside out.
For instance, during the recent recession, Robin says, she just focused on surviving in a very volatile marketplace. "My goals were making sure I still had a company and keeping my staff intact," she says. "I elected not to lay off a lot of staff during the recession."
Bill, on the other hand, concentrated on profitability. As a result, he says, he actually became more selective about the sort of client with whom he chose to work. Paragon General Contractors & Cabinetmakers specializes in high-end residential construction. In Sleepless in Seattle Tom Hanks and Rob Reiner wrestle with just the type of client Bill decided to sidestep: a person whose demands shift more frequently than Roseanne's marital status. "We started politely declining to bid on jobs we thought would be . . . problematic," he says. He adds, "No one is going to make clients like those happy, and whoever signs up with them is going to lose money trying."
Bill was also a bit more pragmatic than Robin about letting people go. "We are as sensitive as we can be about layoffs," he says, "but we have a strong dedication to the health of the organization, whose continued existence creates jobs." Just before the recession, he had trimmed his staff from 90 to 65. Since he was being more selective and looking for the better-quality contracts, Bill says, he had to drive down his fixed costs to maintain a 7% profit margin. And payroll was a natural target.
