'Life-making or risk taking'? Co-preneurship and family business start-ups

When discussing couples involved in small businesses, many commentaries portray romanticized 'in love-in business' accounts. Little is known, however, about the ways in which venture creation is constructed between co-habiting couples. Neither is it reported, except for negative conceptions of 'lifestyle' businesses, how co-habiting couples negotiate their life-making aspirations with risk-taking activities associated with business venturing. In this article, fieldwork material is drawn from 26 co-preneurial situations to develop a typology of co-preneurship using ownership and management structural dimensions. This typology is illustrated with different types of lifestyle businesses to demonstrate the economic assessments and 'market work' that give rise to family entrepreneurship. This focus is important for taking account of the increasing numbers of couples who combine their skills and labour with a spouse or co-habiting partner in order to develop (or re-position an existing) business venture.