In It Together: Five Lessons from Being in Business With Family

If you want to succeed while working side-by-side with your extended family, you’ll need patience, collaboration and clear boundaries.

By Shane Evans

When my husband, Wayne, and I opened the first Massage Heights location in San Antonio in 2004, we never would have thought we’d be where we are today — 140 units strong across North America and still growing.

It was natural for us to be business partners, not only because we’re married, but also because we met while working for the same company where we had a mutual understanding of membership-based models and the health and wellness industry.

After our first Massage Heights Retreat opened, people almost immediately began asking us how they could get involved. We knew we had something special. As we prepared to open our second location nine months later, my brother, Glenn Franson, joined the company. He brought a wealth of business experience to Massage Heights and over the past 12 years has been instrumental to our growth.

It’s a big decision to go into business with your family and something not everyone can do successfully. I’ve seen families become divided over major business decisions and ultimately fall apart. For us, it’s always been about aligning what’s important to our family with our core values as a company — to be loyal, passionate, diligent and authentic. Those values are entwined in everything we do, from recruiting the right franchise partners to how we treat our team members at all levels and each other. We have a high level of trust and know we’ll do what it takes to help us, as a family and as a company, succeed.

Whether you’re already in business with your family or considering it, here are some best practices that have helped drive the success of Massage Heights.

Define roles and responsibilities

It’s critical that from the very beginning you define clear roles for everyone in the company. As a wife and sister, it’s much easier for me to overstep boundaries with members of my family than it would be if I weren’t related to my colleagues — and that’s something that can cause tension in a family-run business.

When we were first expanding and bringing in more corporate personnel, Wayne and I had to share an office. There were times when I would overhear his phone calls and cringe, thinking, “What are you saying?”

I was overstepping. A friend insisted we define our roles clearly and once we did, it was the start of more success. We began to respect what each family member in the business did and gave each other the autonomy to do their specific job in order to grow the company. Once we were aligned on that strategy, Massage Heights took off.

I highly recommend putting all roles and responsibilities in writing and making sure everyone has a copy. That way there’s no question as to who is responsible for what part of the business and any crossing of boundaries can be identified and rectified quickly.

Ask permission to give feedback

It’s important with any team member — family or not — that you ask permission to give feedback, so they can be ready to hear it. When you’re in business with your family, it can be easy to offer unsolicited advice and deliver it in an unprofessional way. Often, certain comments can come across as negatives, so be sure to provide feedback in a constructive way and be clear about your intent.

Form a board of directors

Big business decisions in the office can quickly turn into heated family arguments at the dinner table. To avoid that, we formed a board of directors. We also set boundaries, leaving important conversations for the following day at work or at the next board meeting — never at home.

We do catch ourselves sometimes and have to do a quick check, especially when we’re around our children or friends who aren’t involved in the business. By putting the responsibility of making tough decisions into the hands of our board, we’ve been able to better operate as a family unit and as a senior leadership team.

Treat everyone as you would treat your grandmother

In most people’s lives, a grandmother is a highly respected matriarch of the family. You would never want anyone to do your grandmother harm. If you instill in your culture to treat each other like you would the most special people in your life, it’s an easy way to provide a great working environment. This belief has trickled down from our family to our corporate employees, franchisees and their team members to create a respectful environment system wide.

Don’t push each other’s buttons

Naturally, as family members, you know each other’s weaknesses and faults. You’ve grown up together and have seen each other at your worst. Being self aware and recognizing blind spots is so important to working together better and to being successful in a family-run business.

Shane Evans is founder and president of Massage Heights. Find her at fransocial.franchise.org.