Any Family Business Owners In Here?

[HokieBrewer]

My wife and I are thinking of taking the plunge and opening up a business together. Anyone here own their own business and work with family members? What's the good and the bad. To be honest, I'm confident in our idea, but I'm scared of the high amounts of stress messing up our relationship...

 

[menschmaschine]

Never keep your honey where you earn your money... or something like that.

 

[riverfrontbrewer]

And a word of advice for all your future employees; NEVER WORK FOR A HUSBAND/WIFE BUSINESS! Two main reasons, 1) personal issues the husband/wife have WILL come out in the work place and kill morale; 2)Owner/operators of a business should lead by example, but in many cases one of the spouses will be the "worker" and one will be the "slacker", sending conflicting messages to employees.

Good luck with your business, though.

 

[HokieBrewer]

Thanks for the advice. Hopefully it will work like this - we work together for the first few years, then SWMBO is planning on being a stay-at-home mom, and I'll handle the biz solo.

Keep the comments coming, good or bad.

 

[riverfrontbrewer]

If you can work together those first few years I think you have a good chance at success.

Good Luck!

 

[Austin_]

I worked for my father at his glass company for 12 years. I learned more from him than anyone else. We had a great working relationship and the teaching didn't stop when we left for the day. I'm not there any more because the glass business isn't for me. While I'm sure he was bummed that he couldn't pass it on to the third generation (though he'd never admit it), he totally supported me when I made the decision not to go further with it.

Shameless plug, but if you're in Nashville and need glass, hit up http://evansglasscompany.com/