Isn’t it ironic… the holidays should be a time of celebration and happiness, yet for so many families it’s a time where family tension becomes amplified. Nothing can give you stomach acid quicker than thinking about spending a few hours with relatives you simply don’t like or worse, don’t trust. Here’s a quick and simple […]

So many families struggle with effective communication. It shouldn’t be so hard.  Here’s what I’ve found to be the biggest killers of communication: Ego When it comes right down to it, our ego causes so many of our problems. We want to be “right,” we want to be liked, we want to think we have […]

October was the month when our CFO, Doug, would be making his rounds with all of the leaders in our business to begin to forecast their income and expenses for the upcoming year. The best run, long-term sustainable family businesses know that having an annual budget “process” is an important step on the road to […]

In 1985 I was a young, straight-commissioned salesman in our 65-year-old office furniture business. We had a hot new product and I was positioned to have a great year selling it. Uncle Tim called me into his office and informed me he was hiring an additional salesperson and splitting my territory in half. I was […]