Marine Fabricator May/June 2020 - 16

Mike Peterson, president of SugarHouse
Industries, didn't always plan on joining
the family business. But after getting the
chance to work with his father and other
family members, he says, "it became a
really easy decision to want to stay there."
Photos: SugarHouse Industries.

"It's one of those topics family businesses often avoid like the plague," says
Stephen P. Miller, president of GenSpan
Inc., an Asheville, N.C., family business
planning firm, and co-founder of the
Family Enterprise Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "It
can be uncomfortable. But if the family
business wants to continue, it's critical."
The difficulty comes not just when a
founder is involved, says Miller; it can
be just as tricky if the second or third
generations were the ones that really
built the company. "There's a lot of personal identity tied up in the business,"
he explains.
Succession planning requires the current ownership, no matter which generation it is, to "think about stepping back,
and about their own mortality," says
Miller. "And because the next generation
may have a lot of questions, it's easy for
them to feel that if they bring them up to
Mom and Dad, they may be perceived as
pushing them out or putting their nose
in the business where it doesn't belong."
But the hard conversations need
to happen.

Continue or not
The first part of any discussion, says
Miller, should be about whether the
family really wants to continue the
business when the time comes for a
change in leadership.
"Many founders started their business as a way to make a good living,
and it doesn't necessarily have to go to
the next generation to be a success," he
explains. "The family needs to have a
good reason for wanting to be in business together. Next-generation family
members may feel obligated or entitled
to join the family firm, but they haven't thought or talked about why they
might want to be in business with a sister, brother or cousin.
"Then you need to work really hard
to create a shared vision, to get clear
about where you want to take the
business," Miller adds. "Family businesses often fail to succeed from one
generation to the next because there
is no shared vision for the future of
the firm."
Jennifer Rodriguez has been through
that process at Marianne's Rentals,
Oklahoma City, Okla., the largest special events rental company in the state.
She's the general manager at the company, which was founded by her mother,
Marianne Long, who is still president.
"I told my mom we needed a plan
done while she is still alive, so her
wishes could be honored," says Rodriguez. "If something happened to her, it
would have been a nightmare. I didn't
really care what her specific wishes
were; we just needed them on paper."
They created an ownership pool and
the understanding that Rodriguez
would eventually take over the firm.
And it wasn't all just about Long's
family either, adds Rodriguez, although
her husband, children and other relatives work there. "There are 65 other
families here who depend on this place
for their paycheck," she says.

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Marine Fabricator May/June 2020

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