Should You Hire Your Spouse? Looking for qualified hires? Your significant other may be just what you're after.

Can a woman hire her husband or boyfriend without the business and their personal lives suffering? Vickie L. Milazzo, CEO and founder of Medical-Legal Consulting Institute Inc., says yes. She hired husband Thomas M. Ziemba as general counsel and IT manager for the $6 million training and publishing firm for nurses who work as legal consultants.

"Before I ever thought of hiring Tom, he eased his way into the business," recalls Milazzo, 48. "He had a laptop he took on trips, and I found myself asking him to type things." Hired as the Houston company's first employee, Ziemba, 43, admits he was scared. "I had become addicted to a steady paycheck," he says. However, Ziemba was already working for his wife before going to his job, during lunch, after work and on weekends. "I figured I'd get more time off by working for her full time," he jokes.

For Milazzo, the biggest challenge has been separating the CEO and wife roles. "I'm a natural leader," explains Milazzo. "I'm good at telling people what to do." She had to realize that having the final say as CEO didn't carry over to her personal life.