A family affair

The famed Robert Burns quote “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry” speaks volumes to Kurt Bland, president of Bland Landscaping, to this day.

Bland says it was a tumultuous journey to get the company to where it is today after deciding, alongside his brother, to bring in private equity and give up control of the business.

Bland was just one of four panelists who shared their experience on what it’s like working in and transitioning a family business during a panel at Wilson 360’s annual Thought Leaders Retreat recently held in Denver.

In addition to Bland, panelists also included Bruce Moore Sr., founder of Eastern Land Management; Kevin McHale, owner of McHale Landscape Design; and Doug Stacey, president of Landscape Services.

Bland says that back in 2005, he and his brother unexpectedly took over the business from their father after their mother received a terminal health diagnosis.

“We went through an accelerated succession planning that was supposed to take years but ended up taking less than a week,” he explains. From there Bland and his brother ran the business with their father as equal partners. Eventually the two bought the business from him and were 50/50 partners. The decision to bring in private equity came in 2017.

AN OUTSIDER’S PERSPECTIVE. “Like every family, we were trying to do all the right things…but that just got thrown out the window when mom got sick,” Bland says.

Because life, and business, can be so unpredictable, all of the panelists recommended creating a transition plan sooner rather than later. And the first step for a lot of them was bringing in outside council to guide them through the process.

That’s what Moore says he did when wanting to transition the business over to his son — Bruce Moore Jr.

“We ended up turning the company over to him three years ago in 2021,” Moore says. “He still runs it today.

“We knew he was very passionate about the industry, and he’d been in the business since he was six years old,” he adds. “When it came time to start thinking about an exit strategy, I reached out to my peers and sorted out what we needed to do.”

Moore explains the guidance allowed him to work out a plan with his son where he would provide him with a 15-year loan to be bought out from the business. That loan would be paid out over a pre-determined period of time, which Moore adds has been nice recurring revenue for his retirement.

Stacey notes that even back when his father was running Landscape Services, they had non-voting board members who would help with future planning.

“We had four advisory board members from people in different industries,” Stacey says. “We met quarterly to get their advice. It really helped with the family issues to have an outside perspective.”

And when it became clear that someone else would be taking over the family business, Stacey says the first thing they did was bring in an expert.

“We actually hired a consultant to help us with succession planning,” Stacey says. “There’s a lot of challenges with it.”

Over at McHale Landscape Design, with so many family members in the business, a third party was absolutely necessary to iron out who will lead the next generation.

“We have 10 McHales now in McHale Landscape Design,” McHale says. “You can imagine it’s very interesting day-to-day. My brother and I both have three adult children each that are in the business, while my brother’s wife is our CFO, and my wife was active in the business early on but now is in more of a corporate secretary role.

“Ten years ago, there was no inkling anyone would join — it was never in the cards,” he adds. “We woke up one day and had six of them in our company…Our biggest regret was not having the foresight to start this sooner. We’re behind the eightball now.”

With that many parents, children and cousins working together, McHale says a lesson their consultant thought them early on has been invaluable in terms of redirecting their mindset.

“One of the first things our consultant told us was do not use the word ‘children’ or the word ‘kids’ — they are the next generation. Refer to them as ‘next gen,’” McHale recalls.

McHale adds that the consultant is a great person to have on board because they’re able to lead discussions and deliver news without any family baggage weighing in.

“He has a background in psychology and an MBA in finance — he understands the numbers, and he understands people. He’s very good at saying something that people need to hear in a non-offensive way,” McHale says.

CALMER HEADS PREVAIL. Panelists add that while having someone else involved to bring out the hard truths is ideal, it’s still important for everyone to check their egos at the door when it comes to transition time.

“One of the toughest experiences in any family business is deciding who is the ultimate decision-maker,” Stacey says. “That’s where the challenges exist… there’s a lot of emotion behind it…you have to have a clear chain of command. In our industry, it’s not a situation where you can just collaborate and make decisions together.”

Stacey says he and his three siblings saw even more problems on the horizon when their children began to take an interest in joining the family business. But all that was solved when they found the solution in a sale.

“When HeartLand knocked on our door, we listened to what they had to say and with us making the move to HeartLand it has made all the family issues go away,” Stacey says. “The wasn’t any further discussion needed — it was all over with. That was almost three years ago now, and our family has never been closer.

“Now I’m not the ultimate decision-maker. So, if they bring an idea to me and it doesn’t get approved, I can say ‘it’s not my decision’ and we can all complain together,” Stacey jokes. “That alleviated a lot of tension with the structure that we had.”

Bland also made the case for private equity, saying it saved his relationship with brother as, in his opinion, 50/50 partnerships seldom work.

“That’s a major reason we decided to bring in private equity,” he explains. “My brother and I tried a bunch of approaches to not have that corporate governance be a family matter… we had some knock-down, drag-out moments as brothers… but that took the decision out of our hands.

“It’s easy to divide money,” Bland adds. “It’s very, very hard to divide a business.”

McHale adds that while they are still actively going through the transition process, no one has let it affect the family dynamic.

“What I will give everyone in the family credit for is, nobody brings it outside of work,” McHale says. “They’ll have their arguments or disagreements during work, but if we’re at a family function… it never crosses the line where it affects the family.”