Runninga small business is stressful. Dealing with family is emotional. Mix family and business together and you obviously have an emotionally charged combination. I am no family business expert but since 90 percent of the businesses we deal with are family businesses, I would be remiss not to share our consulting experiences.
Parenting is a challenge. There were no directions when my kids fell out of the womb. We had to figure it out as we went along. I am lucky to have two great daughters and four wonderful grandchildren, but I do wonder if it was my blundering attempt at parenthood or blind luck that built this success. Some parents are too hard on their kids, others too lenient. Some kids are hard workers, others enabled and codependent. The problem is that enabled employees — whether they are kids or not — are just, well, bad employees. A good employee, whether he or she is our child or not, expects to be promoted and make more money. So here is the problem: high-performing kid or low-performing kid, what to do?