Strategies for Successfully Working With Family Members Focus of Wi12 Session

Running an independent bookstore with family members can be rewarding, but it can also present unique challenges, many of which Sarah Stern of Family Business Minnesota will address during the January 30 Winter Institute session “Navigating Family Relationships in Business.”

“A lot of people who work in businesses with their families think they’re the only ones going through these frustrations,” said Stern. “As it turns out, it’s what everybody is going through.”

Stern, who was previously the director of the Family Business Center at the University of St. Thomas, will provide booksellers with tools to help them depersonalize the business decisions they need to make day to day as well as methods for navigating potential areas of conflict to ensure a happy working relationship with family members.

“The technical term for the system that I use is Entrepreneurial Operating System. It sounds like software, but it’s not — it’s a way of life and a way of running your business,” said Stern. “Working with your family can, and should be, fun. This tool is a way to either make it fun or keep it fun — whatever their version of fun is.”

Stern grew up in Wisconsin in a time when franchises and chain stores were not prevalent, so her world was full of warm, welcoming independent businesses, she said. As a creative writing major in college, she spent much of her time in the many bookstores in the Twin Cities, and, later, she went on to earn her master’s degree in organizational leadership.

“Statistics show that family businesses are the biggest employers in the United States, and they also tend to be the most generous to their communities,” said Stern. “I am motivated to help family businesses because they built the world my kids grew up in and are building the world my grandkids will grow up in.”

Stern’s ultimate goal when working with family business owners is to help them get what they want out of their businesses, she said. At the Winter Institute session, she plans to help booksellers project where their stores are headed over the next 10 years, determine what needs to happen in the next three years to make that goal a reality, and what the next 90 days need to look like to start off right.

One of her favorite tools to offer businesses is a weekly meeting agenda that outlines topics of discussion down to the minute. “What it does for the people I work with is help them know they’re using time efficiently, but also having their time focused on the most important things. It’s incredibly helpful for people in business with families — it’s so easy to get off track and focused on planning someone’s next birthday,” said Stern.

Learning about strategies for working with family members is also important for booksellers who are considering involving the next generation of family in their business. “Helping them know they have the business’ future taken care of helps them simplify their day-to-day operations because they’ll have the space in their brains to be thinking about the bigger picture,” said Stern.

This education session will be helpful even for those booksellers who believe they have a good working relationship with their family members, noted Stern. “A lot of the tools I will share were made for people who just want to get more out of their business — and it’s not always money,” she said. “Everything I’m going to share is something that would translate outside of a family business. It’s really about taking it to the next level.”

“Navigating Family Relationships in Business” will take place on Monday, January 30, from 9:05 a.m. to 10:05 a.m. in the Greenway F/G Room of the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis. See the full Winter Institute schedule here.