I’ve spent nearly 20 years working in digital, and only recently have I realised how much of that experience I can bring to our own business.

My wife, Emma, has spent years building Bobbin & Bumble, and recently I’ve become much more involved in what happens behind the scenes.

And bloody hell, there’s a lot happening behind the scenes.

I’ve discovered that I absolutely love digging into the numbers. Sales, conversion, customer behaviour, margins, wholesale, the lot. I can spend hours looking at data, spotting patterns and working out what we should do next. I’ve done it throughout my career, but when it’s your own money and your own business, there’s a slightly different level of interest. AKA, hold on tight, this is all on us. Yikes!

But the biggest surprise hasn’t really been the data. It’s been realising how much of what I’ve learned managing people, products and delivery applies to running a small business.

Emma is brilliant. She’s built a business, developed products and created something people genuinely want to buy. But she’s also spent years spinning about 400 plates, making decisions and trying to keep everything moving.

One person can’t do all of that forever, so we’ve started looking at how we work, what we can delegate and where I can help. Which has been interesting because we approach things very differently.

Emma will have an idea, get excited, launch something and move on to the next thing. That’s what entrepreneurs do. I don’t have that gene. It’s not in me to invent and create products from scratch. Give me a problem and I’ll come up with a solution, but Emma sees a problem or opportunity and makes something happen.

I’m the annoying one asking how it connects to everything else, what happens after launch, how we’ll measure it and whether we’ve thought about the other 15 things it might affect.

Neither of us is necessarily wrong, but there have definitely been some creative differences along the way. Nothing a cinnamon roll and Starbucks won’t fix, or an impromptu photoshoot of us professional coffee drinkers.

And then there’s managing the people around the business. Agencies, suppliers, fulfilment, all the external teams that help keep everything running. I’ve really enjoyed getting involved in some of those relationships, making sure we’re all working towards the same goals and holding each other accountable.

We make money, they make money. Everybody wins.

I’ve also developed a whole new level of respect for UK businesses that manufacture physical products. It’s bloody expensive, and the pressure on margins is something else entirely.

What’s interesting is that I’ve spent years helping organisations understand their users, improve their products and make better decisions.

Now I’m doing exactly the same thing at home, except the ultimate stakeholder is my wife and it’s our family business. Believe me, that’s a stakeholder relationship you really don’t want to get wrong.

I’m loving it, though. There’s something incredibly rewarding about taking everything you’ve learned over your career and putting it to work on something that’s yours.