EO Atlanta member Kelvin Slater and his wife, Mandy, have launched several restaurants during their marriage.

It’s true that you should treat your business partnership like a marriage. After all, it’s important whom you select and no matter who that person is you’ll have to work hard at it. It’s also good advice to treat your marriage like a business partnership, in that both require commitment, communication and a shared view of values and goals. But what about when your business partner and your marriage partner are the same person? That requires a new rulebook entirely!

That’s the situation for EO Atlanta member Kelvin Slater (pictured at left) and his wife, Mandy. The couple, married for 14 years, opened their first restaurant together just two weeks after their wedding. The duo’s love for the hospitality industry began long before they ever met when they worked for restaurants in various capacities. Eventually, their paths crossed.

“She was the best hire I ever made,” Kelvin says of the moment he met and hired Mandy onto the Chili’s restaurant team he managed. With an understanding of both the service and cuisine side of the industry, the couple has since parlayed their strengths into several successful businesses.