Growing Professionally and Personally Within a Family Business
By Jeff Holler
We all know the stereotype – inexperienced offspring of the owner steps into a company and employees have to deal with the fallout. The child either hampers progress in the business or is unproductive, coasting on the success already in place.
That’s the worst case scenario. So how do you plan for the best-case scenario? How does a family member help grow a company to 50x its original size and become so respected and integral to the operation that they help steer the company even after its sold?
In David K. Sargent’s case, it all boiled down to thinking less like an employee or family member and instead embracing the mindset of an entrepreneur. That’s what allowed him to excel in sales, production, operations and executive management. In our interview David shared the following insights on developing that mindset.
Take Control of Your Invested Money
David’s family bought Stripe-A-Zone when he was just 17, but he had already done well enough investing his own savings that he was able to purchase 11% of the company.
“I saw a tremendous opportunity,” David recalls, “to invest in the company I was going to work in. To me, it was better to progress from allowing someone else to work with my money to instead being in control of that money myself.” In time the company sold for nine figures, so his investment paid off handsomely.
The Key to Sales Success
“There is a natural talent that most sales people possess,” he believes. “But there’s also institutional knowledge that comes from first working in the field to truly understand what the company can do. My time in the field also helped me foresee problems we could prevent and learn how to approach the customer, even at my young age.
“It gave me in-depth knowledge so I could present options and possibilities, potential issues and even risk analysis. That gave me the ability to talk about upsell, not just what the customer was asking for. If you can figure out what the customer needs and then fulfill that, you’re going to be successful.”
Communicate Honestly with Customers
In fact, David did so well in sales that he oversold the company’s capacity to deliver, leading to scheduling problems and delays.
“Whether it’s personnel or supply-chain issues, there will always be things that come up no matter how hard you try. Even if you can’t meet the schedule, it’s ok as long as you communicate with the customer. When I took over the scheduling responsibility, it gave me the ability to control the ‘throttle’ of the company, using a hub-and-spoke model and communicating directly with every customer. That allowed me to eliminate many upstream problems.”
Working in a Family Business – What to Expect
For young people thinking of joining their family’s business, David advises they become aware of the personal dynamics in place and be prepared to:
- Be underestimated. You may have been given the opportunity because of your family, but what you do with it is up to you.
- Prove people wrong. Demonstrate that you deserve the role.
- Do what you say you will do. Become known as reliable.
- Improve yourself if you hope to lead. Read books – both business and philosophy. If people respect you as a leader in business, they may look to you for guidance in their personal lives, too.
- Be honest and transparent. There will be challenges that are unique to a family business. If you communicate what the issues are, most people will dive in and help. You can’t hide things – your employees know more about what’s going on than you think they do.
- Tackle problems head-on. If people aren’t getting along, make them talk with each other. Issues allowed to fester become major issues the longer you wait.
I invite you to listen to our full interview for David’s additional insights on:
- How parents can help their children succeed in a family business
- Explosive growth through innovation – how they expanded from parking lots into road striping and airports
- Advising children on going to college or not
- Working together as a couple in business
- His journey through kidney disease
- What he considers Bigger Than Business