How TempRocket co-founders maintain a happy partnership

Having been a couple for over 20 years, this husband and wife team have built a family and a business empire all whilst still enjoying each other’s company. As co-founders of TempRocket, Andrew and Sarah Johnston run a unique and powerful online solution for finding and booking temporary staff.

Founded: July 2010
Turnover: £32m
Employees: 14 (with over 10,000 active contract workers across the public sector)

How did you both meet?

We both worked at Sarah’s parents’ company back in 1994 (both of our parents also worked together in their respective businesses.)

What inspired you to start a business together?

We both have a similar vision and desire to improve the contract and freelance market space.

What specific roles do you both have?

I am more into development. I’d like to think I’m the visionary, and the one with the mathematical brain! Sarah is the implementer with a skill to get the job done and clear down my ever-growing To Do List! We work exceptionally well together.

How do you separate work from your personal life?

Any couple who run a business together that say they can separate these two major parts of life are lying – it’s all about the balance of priorities, and knowing when each of us needs some time out, to take it.

Keeping an eye on ‘everything’ from afar, as well as having the staff around you to delegate tasks allows for some down time.

Sarah & I have 5 children and 2 dogs (who very often come to the office), so we would say we are masters of the ‘work-life balancing’ technique.

Do you have any rules about ‘leaving work at work’?

No! We work to live, so therefore, life is our work.

What are your individual strengths?

Mine is the ability to see an opportunity, develop that opportunity, and create a business model around that, whilst keeping an open mind in case I need to change the dynamics quickly.

Sarah’s is more on the methodical aspects, deployment, and catching a lot of what I throw in the air to ensure it doesn’t get broken.

What’s been your biggest business achievement to date?

I would say, it’s the staff we have around us. To employ, develop and nurture talent from within is by far my finest achievement.

Anyone can start a business, most can make money and long-term clients from that business. These are prerequisites of why a business is started in the first place right? I’m more interested in what we can bring to others to enrich their lives based on our dreams and visions.

Without good staff, you do not have a good business. This isn’t easy, trust me. We have had some really bad members of staff over the years, some still trying to cause problems, but we are not fazed by this, even though they think we probably are!

What is the hardest part of working together?

For me; NOTHING.

What is the best part of running a business together?

The togetherness and enjoying our success as a couple.

What celebrity couple are you most like?

Kurt Russell & Goldie Hawn.

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