If you had told us 4 years ago that we would be starting a business together (a furniture rental company to be exact) we would have looked at you like you were insane…

And yet, here we are, getting ready to head into our 4th year of business and we have had both success and failure, joy and frustration, and have loved almost every second of it 😉

As we continue to grow, we want to be transparent and open about what it has taken for us to get where we are and the things we choose in our daily lives that have helped us to grow.

5 Things We’ve Learned Building a Company As A Best Friend Duo:

1.Intentional Communication is The Key

So much of life is communicating with each other…and so many of life’s problems come from miscommunication between people.

It’s easy to think that you’ve clearly communicated your point and then are irritated when the other person doesn’t understand. And you tend to be utterly confused how that miscommunication even happened.

Because if we’re honest, most of us believe that we are fabulous at communicating…especially us communication majors…

We have made it our goal that whenwe are working with each other, solving a problem, creating designs, that we need to overly explain what we are thinking and what we need done.

Most of our arguments are solved after we understand that we didn’t really know what the other person meant.

The number one rule we have found in this area: you can’t over communicate.

Explain, explain and explain some more in the plainest terms possible.

2.  Joy Isn’t Tied to Success…It’s A Choice

We have been taught in our society that if you’re successful you should be happy…and the only way to be happy is to be “successful”.

Yet, there are so many “successful”people in the world who aren’t happy and aren’t joyful.

Because joy and true happiness has to come BEFORE you can ever enjoy any type of success.

The rule for this: Find joy in the every day and remember that who you are and your identity isn’t tied to your success!

3. Patience, Patience, Patience!

We can’t learn this one enough! My goodness, do we need more patience!

Patience as we grow our company, as we grow personally and as we look to the future.

We rush away our lives looking to reach the end goal instead of truly enjoying the process of growing, learning, failing and succeeding.

Plus, who you need to be to achieve your end goal, is a different person that the one that started on this journey.

The biggest lesson here: on the way to your goal, make sure you become the person you need to be to achieve it at the end.

4. Learn and Grow Together Constantly and Consistently

The only way to grow as a company is to grow personally, and with the person you started the company with!

If only one person is looking to grow, it will be easy to become frustrated, stagnant and miserable.

Often times when you are learning together, you will each learn and understand different things which can be a key to new types of innovation.

Whether you attend trainings, watch webinars, hire a coach, do it together and do it often.

Our rule: If you want to go far, go together. And while you’re doing it, learn as much as you can along the way.

5. Encouragement…Always

What we have found most often is that when one of us is excited, the other might not be.

When one of us is irritated over a problem, the other has clarity about the solution.

And that is OK.

The key is to understand that you both won’t always be on the same page and it’s the obligation of each party to encourage the other.

Those of us who are crazy enough and lucky enough to have a partner in this journey, need to remember that you are only as good together as you are individually.

What’s so important to remember: Keep pushing each other to be the best person possible, love them in their lowest and praise them in their highest.

 

Whether you already own a company or are considering starting one with a business partner, here is our biggest piece of advice: This journey will be just about the hardest one that you will ever take. You will have great highs and terrible lows. And the most important thing to remember is that you are in this together. Love them, push them, encourage them and keep growing together always.

 

Old Souls is a vintage, modern and design-forward rental and event styling company located in Pittsburgh, PA and serving Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and New York. We house an inventory curated for corporate events, weddings, event spaces, photo shoots, and trade show displays. With an unmatched selection of rentals, we are truly a destination for producers, couples, event designers, art directors, stylists and commercial photographers.