The Ups and Downs of Running a Family Owned Branding Studio

Mate is a family run business. We are led by Bec, who has worked primarily in branding and design agencies, and Rob, who has worked mostly in advertising (with a design focus) and startups. And, we are married.

Working with family members can be a blessing and a curse. While your relationships with your family are likely your strongest, there can be potential issues when it comes to working together. A family-run business often comes with unique advantages, but there are also common challenges that many family owned companies face. That's why in this blog post, we will uncover the positives and negatives of running a family branding business and explore ways to manage these challenges.

Let's start with the positives.

One of the biggest advantages of a family-run branding business is that 100% of the money stays in the family. Even in a partnership, only a percentage of the profits go towards your family. Between two partners, that aren't family, the profits can be cut in half. From 100% to 50% is a big jump!

Additionally, vacations and time off can be timed well, allowing family members the flexibility to create a more balanced life. Daily, we're able to spend a bit more time at daycare pickup and dropoff with our daughter. And, we get to pick the excercise classes in the middle of the day without a ton of people packed together at the start or end of the day. For vacations, we just took a month off to travel around California and meet up with Rose's grandparents living in the US. This is something that would be incredibly challenging if we were working for someone else.

Usually, family members have varied complementing skill sets which can be beneficial to promoting teamwork leading to a competitive advantage. Due to the trust level between family members, feedback is often highly valued and accepted, which also contributes to a healthier family dynamic.

Another advantage of a family-run branding business is that there's flexibility within the workday. Conversations don't have to be limited to 9-5 hours since creativity can happen at any time. This flexibility allows our family to invest more time and energy into important bonding relationships contributing to a positive work environment.

Family-owned businesses can also accommodate changes in the family dynamic, compared to non-family-owned businesses who may not have the same level of understanding. We started Mate right before Rose was born. We immediately cut back on our time spent working although we have slowly increased time at the computer as our daughter becomes more and more independent.

Lastly, family members can define success for themselves which can result in greater job satisfaction and motivation. We decided, before starting the business, we only needed to earn $500k a year to be successful. When we reach this threshold, we're done for the year. Time to travel! Currently, we're strategizing on how to get fewer clients, but more long term relationships (multi-year). We also decided that starting each day with a walk together, taking time for meditation, stretching, running and yoga was part of a successful day, so we make every effort to create the space for these things.

Now for the negatives:

One of the biggest challenges is the potential for baggage from the personal relationship to color business interactions. This has happened to us a few times, when one of us has had an off day (or an off week!) and needs some space. Showing up for work with a short fuse can kill the productivity for the day and leave both of us feeling too exhausted to execute our work effectively. If the issues drag on for months or years it can kill the business.

Also, it can be difficult for family members to give honest feedback as one would with a colleague or employee. This has been a challenge for us, but we have found that having regular check-ins in which we discuss our individual successes and areas of improvement helps to create space for honest feedback.

In a family business environment, the boundaries of roles can easily blur, resulting in confusion regarding responsibilities. In the short term, this can lead to duplicated efforts as individuals believe certain tasks are their own. Consequently, other vital areas of the business may suffer from neglect. In the long run, if one person is consistently assigned a task they dislike, feelings of resentment can fester, ultimately leading to frustration.

When family members work together, it can be challenging to maintain a clear separation between their personal and professional lives. This challenge becomes even more apparent when your office is conveniently located right next to your bedroom, as is the case for us. Picture this: you're savoring a tranquil moment with a cup of tea after dinner, and suddenly, your partner hits you with an unexpected crisis that demands your immediate attention. Unless we establish boundaries, work can easily consume every aspect of our lives.

Work isn't ever distributed fairly. In addition, depending on each person's skillset, you might have more skills necessary for running a business than your other family members. Since I've started several businesses before, I know how to do the finances. I don't like doing the finances, I'm not good at it, and at the end of each quarter my work piles up as I slog through spreadsheets. Breathe and accept that which we can't change.

Ways to manage these challenges:

Check your ego at the door. Our egos usually end up creating a scarcity mindset or pitting family members against each other. Adopt a growth mindset and believe that each person is doing their best at that moment. In cases where someone's ego makes them self-destructive, encourage them to explore this issue. We've made personal growth a key part of our business and issues are much more likely to work themselves out over time.

Consider couples therapy, family therapy, or coaching to establish healthy communication practices that will help prevent conflicts from escalating. We do all of these and more.

It's important to show appreciation. With so much to do every day, appreciation is usually the first thing to fall off. We find creating a specific time each day/week/month to show appreciation goes a long way.

Excellent communication skills are crucial when running a family branding business. Make sure everyone is on the same page by having regular updates on business activities. Learn each other's communication style and practice communicating in a way that each family member will be heard.

It's essential to have a structure in place that creates boundaries between work and personal life. These boundaries can be fluid, if that's the structure that works for your family, but there must be consensus. Our approach is to always respect the 'receiver's' wishes. For instance, If one of us has a great idea outside of work hours and wants to share with the other, we must ask permission to share. Whatever the response, it must be honored. Even if I have the best idea in the world and my partner is watching trashy tv, if they don't want to hear it, I put a meeting on the calendar for the next day. This way, we can relax and enjoy each other's company without bringing any business-related stress into our personal lives! This has been a great way for us to find balance between our professional and personal relationships.

The last and most important challenge is to put a resolution structure in place. Familial bonds could threaten the longevity of the business, which is why it's vital to have a conflict resolution plan in place to resolve any issues before they cause long-term damage to the business's health.

In conclusion, running a family-owned branding business can be a tremendous advantage in many respects. However, it is not without challenges. Ego, bad communication, crossing boundaries and our own emotional history pop up daily and threaten to take our business down a path filled with negativity and frustration.

But despite the challenges, when we take a step back to remember why we are doing this - which is to create something that provides value to our customers and allows us to live our life in the way we want - it helps us stay focused on the positive aspects of what we are trying achieve. We remind ourselves that if we manage the negative aspects appropriately, working together as family can be incredibly rewarding and enjoyable.

We have found it important to take time each day to appreciate all that we are achieving, both professionally and personally. This helps us stay motivated and focused on the big picture goals of our business. So even when things get tough - which they inevitably do - we stay unified, motivated and focused on the bigger goal of creating something amazing.