Text: Amanda Nd;angisa. Pictures: Thinkstock. Article from the May 2014 issue of Bona Magazine.
Going into business with members of your family could either make or break your company.
They say you should never mix business with pleasure. But, they also say that starting a family business could be the best decision you’ll ever make – or it could be the worst. The truth is, you won’t know for sure if working with family is a good or bad thing, until you experience it. And ultimately, the success of your business largely depends on how you handle the situation. Kagiso Pilane – a member of the Royal Council of the Bakgatla Ba Kgafela tribal administration, a popular mining, tourism and community development family-owned business in Rusternburg – gives us an inside scoop of the real pros and cons of working with family.
Pros
• Working with family allows you to have easy access to your staff, even after hours if you are a workaholic.
• It rules out the new employee awkwardness and the time it normally takes to get familiar with them.
• You get to spend even more time with your loved ones; the office is filled with familiar faces.
• The family will also hold and respect the values of the business with as much depth as you do.
Cons
• Your family may not take you seriously as the boss.
• Too much time spent together may lead to conflict. Your relationship outside work could be affected by issues about the business.
• When you are equal partners with someone, the relationship mirrors a friendship. Boss-employee relationships are different, and this aspect can lead to tension later. You might find a relative shrugging off a direct order in front of other employees, or undermining your authority in other ways.
• Firing a family member may have disastrous results for your personal life, and cast you as a bad person when you were simply making a smart business move. This might affect your family gatherings and other family members might end up taking sides, which could be ugly.
How to make it work
• Create a clear, written outline of each person’s major job responsibilities.
• Communicate early and often about any personal or work-related issue that could cause tension.
• Give each other as much physical space as possible so as to not feel on top of each other all day, every day.
• Call relatives by their real names at work to create a professional environment and equality. Don’t use words like cuzzy, sistas, etc.
• When it comes to not getting enough respect from your family, at work, normal disciplinary procedures should apply when disrespect is sensed.
• Most family members tend to expect a better salary than others because they are family. However, the recruitment of family members should be subjected to normal hiring processes.
• If you suspect that one of your family members is slacking in their work, you need to treat them like everyone else; they would need to be reprimanded if they are not performing.
• It’s important to draw the line between being a boss and being a sister/brother for example. Situations that are not handled well, could have a negative effect on team members who are not family. It can also be detrimental to your performance as the boss.
• Try to remember that your family members will sometimes bring their personal problems to the workplace. It’s only natural, as they would be seeing each other and taking advantage of this opportunity.
• The most important thing to remember is to employ the family member based on their qualifications and not because they are a relative.
Real life story
Noni and her husband Levy Thom run Swift Travel and Tours, a travel and tourism agency in Mthatha, Eastern Cape. Their staff is entirely made up of family members.
We started the business in 1994 and made a conscious decision to only hire family members. We specialise in travel arrangements including flights, hotels, and car hire as well as bus bookings, mainly for corporate clients. Most of the family members were hired based on qualifications. “My brother-in-law previously worked for a travel agent and had completed a travel diploma at college,” says Noni. “Our son is a qualified internal auditor, so he automatically filled the role as the company’s accountant.
Our daughter has an outgoing personality and she loves assisting people; which is very good for business.”
Advantages and disadvantages of working with family
Advantage: We all know where our bread is buttered and that we literally need this business to thrive and survive. It even goes as far as realising that buying a new dress, pair of shoes, a T-shirt, or even those soccer boots one has been longing for, requires everyone one of us to work that much harder. Upholding our good name is crucial at all times.
Disadvantage: There aren’t that many and when they do arise they can be overlooked. We are blessed with humble personalities and we have high regard for others, even when there are times one feels like sleeping in or skipping work, we always understand and rise to the occasion.
Handling conflict
We handle conflict wisely, and it’s all by God’s grace. There has never been a moment where other staff members have been so uncomfortable in the office they left or the business suffered. We always find a polite way of resolving conflict.
Last words
Working with family minimizes unnecessary expenditures; everyone can see the financial stand and can be restrained or propelled by finances. Of course also put God first in everything you do.
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