Working with Family

Working with family has dynamics of its' own as compared to businesses that have no family involved.   There are pro's and con's to working with family.

Some of the pro's include your family members have a vested interest in the business.  They care just as much as you do.  You can trust them and they have your back in all situations.  They can give you constructive criticism in certain situations.  They see things from a different perspective and can share this with you to help run a better business.

Some of the con's include the following.   It is also a challenge to give constructive criticism in certain situations.  When it's vacation time there may be a larger number on vacation at the same time.

If you live with them, you tend to bring the work home with you.  It can become the mainstream conversation when you get home, at the dinner table and afterwards.  You talk about work all the time on vacation.   You never seem to get away from work when you live and work with family.  This is a trap to avoid and to work on if it does dominate your personal time.

We have family dynamics at AlphaKOR which has been a good thing for us over the years.  We have brothers, sister, in-laws and couples on our team which have helped build our culture.   The con's have been minimal and the pro's have mainly dominated in developing our success. 

My wife, Carmela, joined our team five years ago.   I admit, at first we talked about the office at night a lot.   We would catch ourselves, our daughters would mention it so we decided to not talk about the office except on occasion or specific items such as "Oh I forgot to tell you to submit that order for a client".

What is your experience working with Family?