The male parts of our workforce: Slade, Sloan, Richard and Rick.

We were on our way to Dallas to visit relatives, which constituted something over a two hour trip. Not many miles down the road, my sons, Sloan and Slade, had already been sharing the back seat long enough to get on each other’s nerves. The verbal banter had begun, and the irritation between the boys was clearly evident. But, because Dad was the driver, and was not likely to put up with much, they kept the conflict from becoming physical.

Slade knew he would be in trouble if Dad heard him say he hated his brother, so when his frustration was complete, he turned to Sloan, several years older than his five, and, in a deliberate and determined voice said, “Sloan, I don’t like you!”  

Without delay, Sloan leveled his eyes at smaller male sibling, and with matching conviction replied, “Slade, I don’t like you!” 

To everyone’s surprise, from the front seat came a tiny but bold little voice, the voice of Lacey, their tiny and bold little two-year-old sister, as she nonchalantly quipped, “Well, I don’t like either one of you.” 

We all practically died laughing, though she hadn’t intended the slightest humor. After all, she really didn’t like her brothers, and it would be many years before she would. 

I share this bit of family history with you to illustrate beyond any doubt that our family is in every way normal, and have had more than our share of personality conflicts. This being the case, I find it totally amazing that, at least right now, so many of us work together every day. At the present, both boys, one daughter-in-law, my dad, and myself work at the sign shop, or our other shop, all the time. My daughter, now off to college, has also been one of our part-time staffers at times.

Other family companies I have done work for, or been around through the years, have always been of interest to me. Having grown up around a family business, I knew a little about how difficult that situation can be, and I have been a bit awed by the fact that some seemed to manage quite well.

We never really planned how our company would progress, and had little idea it would ever become a family business, but hey, here we are. And, to my surprise, though battles have been fought, and voices have been raised on occasion, after the dust settled we are still here. How did that happen?

I feel a bit lucky, really. Since these days it seems to take ever more work hours to make a business profitable, being able to spend a good deal of these hours with your favorite people on earth is a blessing indeed. And though I do not know what the future holds, and whether or not we’ll always work as a team, I am glad we’ve had the experience, even though it isn’t always easy.

I guess I’m writing this just to say that it really is possible for a family to work together. Not easy, but possible, and sometimes even fun. No, when you look back at what you’ve done together, you realize a whole lot of it was much more fun because you’ve done it together. 

Whether yours is a family business or not, I hope you enjoy working with the people you work with every day. And, I hope your business, despite the recession, is doing well and you have a really great month.