70 | MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 1
action and community building opportuni-
ties for clients.
We are also extremely community oriented.
Next year, we’re launching our nonprofit,
LifeBoost Charity Fund. Christopher is active
in various cancer support and nonprofit or-
ganizations and Darcy serves on the board of
the Marin Foster Care Association and writes
for a local non-profit mother’s magazine,
The Crier.
We’re often asked for advice to married cou-
ples looking to start and to successfully man-
age a business together. Here are “dos” and
some are “don’ts.”
- Understand there will be hurdles
in and out of the business; don’t focus
on what is going wrong in your life. - Do define areas for each spouse to
develop and to be the “expert” to facili-
tate autonomy and reduce overlap. - Don’t think that you can separate
your business and private lives. Lever-
age the communications opportunities
rather than fight them. - Do, however, set time limits and
working hours. - Measure success by how well your
clients and staff are achieving their
goals by working with you. - Don’t be afraid to reject conven-
tional wisdom. - When confronted with hurdles of
any sort, embrace them, learn from
them and move beyond them; you
learn a little from success, but you learn
much more from stumbling and over-
coming.
We are an entrepreneurial couple. We love
our business. We love our family. We love
our community. The success of our business
ten years on is a testament to how embrac-
ing what you face in life and in business can
be the foundation of your success. It’s why
we’re here and why we and our clients
thrive.
Darcy Alkus-Barrow and her husband Christo-
pher are the co-founders and co-managing
partners of Foundation Homes Property Man-
agement, which is located in Kentfield, Calif.,
USA. The firm, founded in 2010, manages
more than $150 million (U.S.) of single family
home long term rentals in the San Francisco
Bay Area.
http://www.foundationhomes.com