Working Couple

Tunku Khairil Ibrahim and Lauren McAughtry have done what few couples dare to do – work together. They run four business ventures: The Warehouse Gallery & Café, Ril’s Steakhouse, Satusuku Surf School and The Print Room. Lauren shares how they mix romance and the bottom line.


1. “When you own your own business, any time you spend not working on it is eating into your profi ts. It can be diffi cult not to let it consume your whole life. When we were opening Ril’s Steakhouse, we spent six months setting it up. We designated a weekly ‘date night’ so we could spend some quality time; talking about the restaurant was banned then!”


2. “Everyone is good at different things so it’s important to work according to your strengths. Khairil is the design genius and super-chef while I run the budget and crunch the numbers. It’s so important to work together and keep travelling towards the end goal.”


3. “It’s not easy on the relationship to be spending every minute of every day together, to argue about money, disagree about orders, make tough decisions and so on. No matter how hard things get, you have to remember that you are doing this because he is your partner, your best friend, and your whole life.”