BEST OF THE WEB: All in the Family

Brian Klimek hasn’t had much luck finding dedicated, year-round employees to fill out his staff. “In my area it is really hard to find someone that wants to work in the ‘green industry’ full time,” says the president of Green World Irrigation Specialists in Monroe, N.Y.
 
Klimek looked for help a little closer to home – very close. He hired his brother as an irrigation technician. This is either a smart move or a decision an employer later regrets, depending on the family dynamic. Employers have to find a way to keep the business running without letting emotions cloud their better judgements.   

Participants of the Lawn & Landscape online Message Board recently joined Klimek and weighed in with their experiences sharing their workspace with their families. For the most part, experiences with relatives are positive, but a few board posters found it’s best for them to keep their home lives and their work lives separate.

KEEPING IT CLOSE. Some participants, say hiring a family member ranks up there with their best business decisions. Dave Reynolds, owner of Alpine Sprinklers and Landscaping in Kalispell, Mont., hired his wife, a retired nurse, more than 10 years ago to manage the office.
 
“I realized after the first year that I really wasn’t the boss anymore,” Reynolds posts. “She was. I swallowed my pride and got away from a lot of the day-to-day things and have had a lot more success.”
 
This freed up some of Reynolds’ time, allowing him to focus more on the big picture. As an added bonus, he has found the office has been better organized, sales have increased and customers and employees have been happier since his wife took over the paperwork responsibilities.
 
The addition of his wife worked so well he decided to bring his daughter on board to manage the estimating and job costing. That hire has led to  positive results for the company as well. “It again has been a good move,” he says.
 
Bill Atwood, owner of Bill’s Complete Lawn Care and Landscaping in Trumbull, Texas, also hired his wife to run the office. His son and grandson are part of the team as well. “I never get to tell anybody anything, never get to count money, can’t write checks,” Atwood says. “They just tell me where to go. I love this business.”
 
Family members have an emotional – if not financial – investment in the company, giving them a reason to want to succeed at the job. This could be what makes them such dedicated employees at some companies. Janice Waterman, owner of Fairhope, Ala.-based Friendship Landscaping and Lawns, found this to be the case with her son, who has been working for her for four years.
 
“The one thing I was lucky with was I was able to train him and work with him to help him become interested and proud of his accomplishments and the work he does,” she says. “Now he does all the irrigation installs and takes pride in it.”
 
Dale Wiley has had similar good fortune with his son, 21, who has been working for the company since he was 16. “He is field supervisor and does an excellent job,” posts Wiley, the owner of Landscape Specialty Services in Forest Grove, Ore., adding he employs his wife as the company controller and office manager.
 
Sometimes working with loved ones can present situations that are too close for comfort.
 
“We all get into it every now and then,” Wiley says. “But it never leaves the office and we are all happy and speaking.”
 
Some posters have learned that if they want to keep emotions out of the workplace and to stay on task, they make sure they don’t lose sight of what brought them together. “We all laid out the expectations in advance and we review the goals on a regular basis,” Reynolds says.

WELL-CONNECTED. Daniel Hanson  got his foot in the door by taking a route that’s not uncommon in the green industry – working for his father. After working in the family business “for a long time,” he now owns Laverne, Calif.-based SCLM Co. and his brother is the vice president of operations.
 
Hanson’s mother used to be in charge of the books, and his sister also was employed at the company for a short time, and it never posed any significant problems.
 
“Some people can’t seem to work with family, but we have never had an issue with it,” he writes.
 
Will Sharp also has heard horror stories. He and his brother co-own Lawn Dawg Services in Matthews, N.C., and they employ the wife of a third brother. So far, Sharp has nothing negative to report about working with family, he posts to the message board.
 
Like others on the message board, Bryan Taynor of Bryan Taynor Landscape Design in Columbus, Ohio, was worried about what the dynamics might be like when he hired his brother, but says his brother has given him no reason to fret.
 
“He has prior experience and I have been training him to take charge of things in the field,” Taynor says. “It’s been nice to have someone in that position, and he understands that work is work.
 
“I’m not big brother at the office,” he adds. “I’m his boss, and there have been no problems.”
 
Matthew Schattner’s employees might have a different story about their boss.
 
“At one time or another I’ve had my dad, both of my nephews, my brother, brother-in-law, wife and oldest daughter working for/with me,” says the owner of Matz Snow & Lawn in Kansasville, Wis. “At this time I won’t divulge who all is or isn’t working for/with me anymore. I’m a tyrant!”
 
Other message board participants acknowledged they have tried the family approach to business and achieved less than positive results.
 
“Never again will I have family and business mixed,” says Rick Brauneis, manager of Vision Designs in Orlando, Fla., without divulging how he arrived at this conclusion.
 
Kelly Tohill, owner of Tohill’s Lawn Maintenance in Atlanta, previously contemplated bringing a family member aboard but says Lawn & Landscape message board participants talked him out of it.

A WAY IN. Some Lawn & Landscape message board posters who have had luck working with family have also seen the issue from the other side: as the one who’s looking to get into the business. For those who are just starting to map a career path, family members can provide the portal into that world.
 
“I learned the sod business at the kitchen table from my old man,” says Steve Cissel, CEO and founder of 10-20 Media in Woodbine, Md.
 
Ryan Holt, owner of Driftwood Lawn Care and Landscape in Rising Sun, Md., gives his nephew an opportunity to see what the landscape industry is like by hiring him to mow during the summer. 
 
Sometimes an employee doesn’t start as a family member, but ends up that way, as Todd McCabe learned.
 
“I work with my wife,” posts McCabe, president of Landscapes Unlimited in Wrightsville Beach, N.C. “I hired her in 2002 to handle pruning and seasonal color, somehow started dating her later that year and then married her.”
 
In other instances, romance was found with clients. This was the case for Bob Keating and his wife.
 
“My wife was a 10-year client on a nice property,” says Keating, president  of Liberty Land Management in Palm Harbor, Fla. “We ended up friends, then ‘poof!’ She is now a property manager with another large company which we just started servicing.”
 
Hanson also met his wife while on the job.
 
“We landscaped her house and while working on the project we hit it off and ended up dating and got married in 2005,” he says.
 
“Funny how things work out sometimes.”