Before starting their pool company in 2007, the Eilands considered it a backup plan. But less than a year later, Ryan was laid off from his job in pharmaceutical sales. He began working on the company full time, while Courtney continues to do some interior design.
The couple currently has one shop, and plan to open a second one in the winter. They have eight employees.
They've found that working together on their small business has many benefits vs. being at a large company.
"Having a business partner that you can trust, that is very hard in a corporation," said Courtney.
"We know that we both have a common goal that we are working towards," said Ryan. "It is our business. We can talk about it at home. We can talk about it driving in the car. We can talk about it any time."
In addition to building their business, Ryan and Courtney's goal is to have a happy family. One downside of running a business together is that it can be harder to put the business to bed than a kid.
"Balancing work, life and family and making sure that we are not always talking about work," can get difficult, said Ryan.
And forget about getting away from it all on a holiday. "A big challenge is we can't really take vacations," said Ryan. If they do leave town for a weekend, the cell phone stays on. "We wanted to go to St. Martin for our five-year-marriage anniversary, and we realized we couldn't do that at this point in our lives," he said.
These seven business owners are determined to become debt-free. They are ditching credit cards and giving their bank loans the old heave-ho.
