The Up’s and Down’s of a Family Owned Business

By Kristin Nagel

So you think you want to start your own business and have your family help you run it? Just think of the money you will save. You won’t have to pay so many employees, all of the profits will go to yourself and your family and you can set your own schedule. Sounds great doesn’t it? We’ll see.

This may sound like a great idea, but the picture isn’t always as pretty as it may seem. Take it from me, it isn’t always so easy. I work with my husband’s family (yes that includes my mother-in-law) in our family owned landscape business. My husband’s grandfather started the business over fifty years ago. From there my father-in-law took over and eventually his wife quit her job to help him run the business. They had three children and they made enough money with the business to get along just fine. Eventually those kids grew up, married, and stayed with the business. Now the business has to generate enough money to support four families plus pay the employees.

This is just one of the things that you don’t think about as you are starting your own business. You figure that all you need to do is make enough money to support yourself. To me this is sometimes very stressful. We have had to lay off employees, use disaster unemployment, and some of the family has had to get outside jobs at times just to make it. There are many sacrifices that come along with owning your own business. You may think that you will have the life of leisure and get to take off any time that you want ~ not true. You actually have to put in more or longer hours than if you were just an employee. I’ve personally had to stay and finish a landscape job with my husband until eleven at night because we had to meet a deadline and all of the employees wanted to go home.

Another thing that you have to think about is how much interaction is too much. I spend six days a week for nine months of the year with my in-laws. In the winter this is lessened to four days a week but there is still daily conversation. Now if your in-laws are people that irritate you or if you can not take the fact that they are going to pretty much know your every move and everything about you, this is not for you. My family and friends can’t believe that I can spend so much time with my in-laws. Let me just clarify that I work with my husband, my mother-in-law, father-in-law, my husband’s brother, and his sister and her husband. To top it all off we all live with-in a stone’s throw from each other. Talk about all in the family, but luckily we get along just great!

The biggest stress that comes with owning your own family business is that the success or failure rests on your shoulders. You are the boss. There is no one to blame if things go bad. If the interest rates at the bank go up, or if fuel prices exceed your estimated plans you have to figure out how to generate more money to cover the extra costs. You can’t just go home and not worry about how you’re going to make payroll, what prices to bid on a job and in our case, if it’s going to rain or be a drought. All of these things are on your mind constantly and can make or break your business.

On the up side, you ARE the boss. If your kids are sick, you can stay home and not worry about losing sick days or you can bring them with you to work. If you need to leave early for any reason, you can. You are the highest paid person on the payroll (if you make enough to pay payroll). You are in control. You get to decided what the best option is for the situation. You don’t have to go through a long line of people to approve or disapprove of what you want to do. If you think its right, you do it.

In my case, we are a seasonal business. Once the snow starts to fly, we start to slow down. This means that I get to spend more time with my kids and my husband. I get to catch up on all of those projects that I had put off all summer. It’s just a little time to refresh our minds and bodies until the next season begins. I know that if I worked for an outside company I would never have the flexibility that I have now.

So I guess what I’m trying to say is that if you are thinking about starting your own business with your family, be sure to consider the things I mentioned. Every day is not going to be easy and things will go wrong. There will be some stressful days and you will wonder “What in the world was I thinking?!”, but in the end you are working for yourself and the rewards and satisfaction you get from succeeding will out weigh the down’s any day!


Kristin lives in Medford, MN where she runs a landscaping business with her husband's family. She is currently working toward her BS in Business. In her spare time she enjoys camping with her husband and three kids, fishing and gardening.

For more from this talented writer, click here.