One business is high technology, the other an ancient art. One is a couple”™s own creation, the other a family business that dates almost to the turn of the 20th century. But the couples who run these businesses ”“ both in their 50s, both married about 30 years ”“ say running a business with your spouse is always interesting.
Dave and Ellen Rosenbaum own Real-Time Computer Services, an IT consulting firm in Ardsley. He started the business 30 years ago, she came into it 19 years ago after working at Ciba-Geigy for 14 years. Their office is their home in Ardsley, so there is no such thing as leaving the job behind. They do have a second office in Manhattan. Client crises must be handled around the clock, so they or a member of their team are always on call.
“We do computer consulting for small to mid-size businesses,” Dave said. “By design it is a 24/7 business. Clients are working from home from Blackberrys and iPhones. And expect us to be available. Two have offices in China, one in Nigeria, one in New Zealand.”
Ellen said she joined the business on a dare. “In 1993, layoffs were starting at Ciba-Geigy. I got a six-month severance package. I told Dave I would give it six months, and if things didn”™t improve we would both have to get real jobs.” Dave struggled to build the business through the 1980s, just as computerization was taking hold in the business world. She admits that she was not very understanding about it, while acknowledging that Dave was “putting his heart and soul into it. But he had to establish himself, it was very slow.” Over the years, said Ellen, “many times I wanted to get out. But it was like trying to get out of the Mafia. It has evolved though, and turned into something really terrific, but extremely demanding. We”™re both in our 50s, it”™s hard to do all-nighters.”
Dave pointed out that they have different styles, whether working or cooking.
“That”™s one of our hobbies. Chinese food is our specialty. We would spend the weekend in the kitchen together cooking. Till the guests arrived and we turned on the wok. And then you have to cook quickly, but our styles are different. One of us would throw a cleaver,” he said, laughing. Ellen labels them this way. “Dave is more interested in steering the course of the business. I come from a tech background. He is a third-generation entrepreneur, going back to the years after World War I when his grandmother and aunts would sew flags in their basement and his grandfather would sell them door to door or standing on a street corner.”
She, on the other hand, came from a large corporation, and said she was not used to doing things herself. “I was plunged into a world where I had to go to UPS myself,” she joked.
Their Ardsley office is the entire basement of their house and their offices are at opposite ends. But they don”™t spend a lot of time together in the office ”“ she is usually in Westchester, he in Manhattan. Their 30-year-old daughter, a trained social worker, has begun to play a part, consulting with clients and taking on support functions.
Ellen sums it up as, “Dave is grays, I”™m black and white.” And as for their 2½-year-old grandson? “He”™s good on the iPad.”
In Larchmont, meanwhile, Steven and Gina Wallach carry on a business that has been in Steven”™s family since 1916, Wallach Jewelry Designs. Steve”™s grandfather started it, with a store on the Bowery. Steve joined his father in the store in 1982, which by that time was in Eastchester. His father retired in 1996 and the Larchmont store opened in 1997.
“We were married 14 years when we started working together, now we”™ve been working together 15, so we”™ve spent more of our marriage working together than not,” Gina said.
There is a division of labor there as well, in keeping with their backgrounds. “Steve is a graduate gemologist from the Gemological Institute of America, so he has very technical and specific knowledge regarding diamonds and colored stones, that”™s his forte,” Gina said. “My background is designing, more of the day-to-day computer-related things, paperwork, clerical work. But we both work with customers. I do the social networking, he does the financial stuff. We both set everything up and take it down. While we”™re doing that, that”™s our informal meeting time.”
Gina jokes that “only at home do we have disagreements. Here everything is discussed. We don”™t argue about business and we try not to discuss it at home, but we”™re not always successful at that.”
