Meet the owners of 3 family businesses and learn how they keep it all relative.

By Nichole L. Torres

Maybe you’ve dreamed of starting a business with your family—your grown children manage the sales and marketing, your mother-in-law handles customer service, and your brother heads up new business development. In this family utopia, you’re building wealth while everyone works together as a harmonious whole.

Then, of course, you wake up. While a family business can be full of rewards, you know it’s not going to be easy. Along with the typical stresses of entrepreneurship, a family business presents unique challenges: dealing with family conflict, working with nonfamily employees, succession planning and defining each family member’s role. Add to that balancing your work and family life when you all work together and being respected as more than just a mom-and-pop business, and you’ve got yourself a family quandary. Thankfully, we persuaded three successful entrepreneurial families to share their secrets and have tips from a few top family business experts to help you navigate these sometimes treacherous waters. Strap yourselves into the minivan, kids—the family is going for a ride.

Conflicting Emotions
There’s almost no one in the world who can make you crazy quite as well as your sibling. Just ask brothers Rick and Randy Girard, co-founders of Girard Environmental Services, a landscaping company in Sanford, Florida. Rick, 36, believes it’s the passion both he and his brother have for the business that can make their arguments so heated. “It is a very difficult situation. My brother and I learned a long time ago that when we disagree, we need to separate and discuss it again tomorrow,” says Rick. “Arguments are never productive. Things are said that aren’t meant, and it’s kind of hard to take those things back.”

Going to separate corners to cool off can be an effective way to deal with family conflicts, says Ira Bryck, director of the Family Business Center at the University of Massachusetts in Hadley. Some entrepreneurs find it helpful to have offices on different sides of the building. “You need to structure it in a way that you don’t put two pit bulls in the same office,” says Bryck. “There was a [local] case where two brothers who ran a very successful company used to fight all the time until [they] realized they each needed their own office on opposite sides of the city—and now their dealings are more businesslike.”

It can also help to identify old family patterns so you don’t repeat them, says family business expert Larina Kase, founder of Performance & Success Coaching LLC, a business coaching company in Philadelphia. If the older sibling is used to parenting the younger one—or if the younger one was always seek-ing attention—those patterns can repeat. “It’s not that there’s something wrong with your family if you’re having these communication difficulties,” she says. “It’s just that it happens to be coming up in the business as well as your personal life—it’s magnified in that way.” Try to be respectful of each other during arguments—and really try not to argue in front of employees. “It’s important that you’re not showing your employees the family issues that are causing the arguments,” Kase adds.

Though Rick Girard notes that he and his brother Randy, 32, still argue, he says, “We know when to stop.” It doesn’t mean they aren’t close—they even have homes next to each other, and they’ve grown their company to $18 million in annual sales since starting in 1998. They’ve also expanded the company with Girard Garden Centers, Girard Wholesale Nurseries and Girard Pool & Patio (which is still in the works)—all under the umbrella of The Girard Companies.

Says Rick, “We love for people to know [we’re] the two brothers who own Girard Environmental Services. The most rewarding [part] is the pride and reputation of becoming successful together.”

Running a Tight Ship
One of the keys to minimizing conflict and maximizing success is defining each family member’s strengths and gifts and putting each person into the right company role. Susan and Kerry Johnson, the mother-daughter team behind Susan’s Healthy Gourmet, a healthy meal delivery service, have perfected their system: Susan deals with networking and marketing and oversees the kitchen, while Kerry handles customer service, policies and hiring. “We will sit down and say, ‘What’s best for the businesses? Where are our strengths and weaknesses?’” says Kerry. “It [took] trial and error and being honest with each other, but we’re all in the right place now.”

The Johnsons have applied that same reflection and focus to hiring their nonfamily employees as well—it’s about hiring the best people for the job, not just hiring people because they are family or friends, notes Kerry. That type of true meritocracy is exactly what experts suggest when it comes to building a strong family business. The message you want to send to nonfamily employees, says Bryck, is this: “There are no ceilings here—you can make what you earn.” 

Kase echoes that sentiment: “Employee recognition is really important. You want to make sure [the nonfamily employees] feel like they are a part of the group and are recognized for their accomplishments.”

Susan, 58, and Kerry, 33, make it a priority to create a company culture where all their employees feel valued. “They’re not just numbers to us; they’re people,” says Kerry. Since starting the Irvine, California, company in 1996, they’ve branched out into both a kids’ line of healthy meals, called Susan’s Healthy Kids, and a frozen food line, Lifespring, that’s marketed to seniors. Combined annual sales are nearly $4 million.

One of the challenges the Johnsons face now is balancing their work life and home life. “One of my goals is to not be here 60 hours a week,” says Susan.

Kerry has worked to set definite boundaries between the business and her personal life. “To be a good, functioning presi-dent, there are certain things that are nonnegotiable for me—I’ll say, ‘Don’t call me after 7 p.m. about business unless it’s an absolute emergency,’” she says. “I go home, [and] I’m done with work and ready for the other part of my life.”

Family Is Serious Business
Working so hard to build your family business, you might be worried about not being taken seriously or being dismissed as “only a mom-and-pop” by outsiders. Generally, the entrepreneurial families we interviewed didn’t have any issues with how they were perceived in the marketplace—likely because they’re deciding how they want their image to be presented. “A lot of it is going to depend on your industry and the image you want to convey. But more often, it’s going to be an asset,” notes Kase. “From the consumer’s point of view, people like to support a local family-run business. It’s more compelling—it’s part of the American Dream. You can certainly use that to your advantage.”

Promoting themselves as a family business has helped boost the image of Potluck Press, a Seattle-based greeting-card manufacturer started in 2001. Run by Patti McKillop, 58, her daughter, Rosie, 26, and her son Matt, 31, the company specializes in vintage picture greeting cards. They share their traditional feel with all their artists and sales reps, making everyone feel like family, says Patti. Even the company name was inspired by that family dynamic. According to Patti, Potluck Press means a place “where everyone brings something to the table.”

Looking toward the future, the McKillops say they’ve discussed issues of succession planning and carrying the family business into the next generation. Patti envisions her three children running the company (including her son Mike, 33, an archaeologist who currently doesn’t work in the business day to day). “It’s their business as much as it is mine,” says Patti. “I want them to know that what they do now, they’re building for their own future.” Looking to the next generation, the McKillops plan to diversify the Potluck Press card lines and have even branched out into Potluck Paris, importing French fashion jewelry. With that expansion, they could see their high-six-figure annual sales shoot into the seven-figure range this year.

Building for the future is exactly what succession planning is—making provisions for who will eventually take over the business. Though it may sometimes be difficult to discuss this issue, it’s vitally important, say experts. “There’s a lot of fear in both directions,” notes Bryck. “Take the time to learn how to broach the topic, and be diplomatic.” You may even bring in a respected third party—like a trusted advisor, accountant or lawyer—to help start a discussion.

When you’re communicating about possible succession strategies, it’s important to hear everyone’s goals and thoughts upfront. “It might happen that nobody’s interested in being the next owner or president of the company—or it might happen that three of the kids want to be in that role, and then they’re all vying for that position,” says Kase. “Compromises are going to have to be made in terms of who’s going to fill which role—but try to make it so that everybody has some of their goals met.”

Family Fun Time
Now you’ve heard some of the difficult issues you’ll face in running a family business, but remember—it can be fun. All the entrepreneurs we spoke with agreed that it’s a joy to spend time with their families and build their businesses together. Says Rosie McKillop: “It’s just a blast to hang out, the three of us, and with our other employees, too.”

Susan Johnson feels the same way. “We are a close family, and we’re very good friends,” she says. “It’s really nice to be able to share the successes as well as the downsides . . . it’s one of the things I love the most.”

And one of the biggest benefits, according to Rick Girard: “It’s the trust and loyalty factor. The backstabbing that goes on in corporate America—we don’t allow it.”

Talk about family values.

Nichole L. Torres is a writer for Entrepreneur magazine.