Theresa and Allen Daytner know how to balance business and love.
The couple, married since 1994, launched in early 2003 their own construction consulting firm, Carroll County-based Daytner Construction Group.
They built the company together, working side by side in a home office, sharing company and family responsibilities. Along with growing a new business, the Daytners were busy raising six children.
“We?re pretty good at solving problems in the business world and out of the business world,” said Theresa Daytner, the company?s president in charge of business planning and development. “We?re very different people, but there?s a mutual respect.”
Theresa Daytner had previously owned two businesses. She persuaded her husband to leave his full-time job and work with her.
“I always joke and say, ?I?m just not your normal wife,? ” Theresa Daytner said. “What wife has six children and then asks her husband to leave his job and start their own company?”
“You hear it all the time, that it should be hard to work with your spouse, but I don?t think it?s detracted from the business at all,” said Allen Daytner, who works on the firm?s project management side.
Daytner Construction has managed construction projects in Maryland, Washington and Virginia, dealing with projects costing up to $100 million. The company has grown to the point where it has 11 employees and has worked on about 25 projects in the past five years. The Daytners have also hired a nanny to help with the children.
Husband-and-wife-owned businesses increased from 8 percent in 1997 to 14 percent in 2002, according to the most recent data from the American Family Business Survey. Updated statistics are due to be reported this spring.
For a couple-owned business to be successful, communication and understanding are key, Allen Daytner said.
“It costs a lot more and takes longer than you think,” he said. “It takes a full commitment on both sides.”
Between the business and six kids, the Daytners said they didn?t have extravagant plans for Valentine?s Day.
“We do our best to have lunch together on Fridays,” Theresa Daytner said, laughing.
