So, you love being with your family and you love the thought of operating a small business.
Why not combine the two, and create a family-operated small business?
Mixing family and business can lead to success. The combination can also challenge the strongest of families. We talked to the owners of several family businesses in Snohomish County for their suggestions for making this kind of small business work.
There are clear advantages of going into business with members of your family, such as understanding their strengths and weaknesses, sharing a set of core beliefs and controlling your own family’s destiny.
Here’s what Tom Hoban, chief executive of Coast Real Estate in Everett, had to say about the idea. “When the idea of starting my own business came up and I went looking for a partner, I went for the best guy I could find — my brother. The ability to trust each other implicitly and the shared values of caring for our employees and customers that is an unspoken reality is really a powerful competitive advantage for us.”
Molly and Steve Smith, who own Homemilkman.com in Everett, agreed.
“We can’t be fired, downsized or have the company close without our knowing (or our doing, for that matter),” Molly Smith said. “Steve enjoys seeing his customers each week, especially the little kids, who love the milkman coming to their door! We both love being a little part of Americana.”
Linnea Covington, who co-owns Structural Design Associates in Everett with her husband Chris, said that kind of teamwork is a valuable part of their business success.
“My husband and I have the same values and see the world the same way. This is very helpful with creating a clear mission for the business,” she said.
Defining roles
A family business also has special challenges such as defining roles and setting boundaries.
As with any business, roles need to be clearly defined. This is even more important in a family operated business, since disagreements at the business can easily spill over and cause tension in the daily interactions between family members.
“The biggest challenges in being a family business, especially a husband-and-wife team, is defining our roles and sticking to them,” Molly Smith said. “We had to learn to make policies together and trust the other one would carry them out without questioning each other.”
My own family’s restaurant business had similar challenges. We were all equal financial partners (mother, stepfather and myself), with my stepfather and myself handling daily restaurant operations. When disagreements about the direction of the business arose, we sometimes had difficulty developing consensus about the correct decision.
Setting boundaries
A family business can impede on family time. That’s why it is important to set very clear boundaries between the family time and business time.
“We make time for ourselves, enjoy our neighborhood and community and appreciate what we have,” Linnea Covington said. “You also need to keep your humor and keep the business at work. When one of us is low, the other person can help pick them up and vice versa.”
Molly Smith agreed, and said, “Running a small family business is a 24-hour-a-day job, it’s not uncommon for me to be in the office at 7 p.m. or 6 a.m. any day of the week.”
“Most days Steve works 12 hours and then has to do a little office work after his daddy duties are done in the evening. The other challenge is vacation time, or lack of it. If we close our business for a week for vacation, we lose our salary for that time, too. We typically just opt for long weekends,” she said.
With the Sisneros family business, when we first started we would sometimes spend too much time talking about the business, which wasn’t productive for the business or family harmony. As a result, we created a “no shop talk” rule when we came together as a family.
That kind of rule helped keep our family and our business together. We sold the business a year ago, after learning a lot about business and each other. It’s important to remember that you might not be in business forever, but you will always be a part of your family.
Pat Sisneros is the Associate Vice President of Administration at Everett Community College. Lynne Munoz is the interim dean of EvCC’s Business and Applied Technology division. Please send your comments to economy@heraldnet.com.
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