Probably one of the most prolific titles in the online space is "coach" -- everything from life coach, to food coach, to business coach, and beyond. But what does it mean to be a coach?

In 10 years of running businesses alongside my wife, we know how appealing it is to increase top-line growth. The question we've actively asked is: How do you make more without adding more work, more hours and more effort into what's already taking your full attention?

For those of us who never went to business school but found our way into entrepreneurship, it takes practical experience to determine which tools best serve us in the real world. After 10 years of starting and scaling multiple businesses, I can unequivocally state that SWOT analysis is one of the most efficient tools for quickly auditing a business at any stage and determining necessary next steps.

As a husband and wife duo, we are required to be aligned in more things than just our business model and role delineation for household or parenting tasks. We truly are partners in business and life, so there is one area that we must be willing to work together on: finances. There are multiple ways for partners and spouses to split the responsibility on income & expenses, we want to share our way to be an example of how two people who are married and in business together make this work!

One of the most common questions we get asked in business is "how do I pay myself?" And we have a unique approach to this, one that optimizes the tax code, and ensures that the maximum amount of our life's expenses are paid by the business (with zero taxes paid!) before we start taking a paycheck. This is a strategy any business owner can utilize and in this article, we will share our top tips on how to make it work for you!