Working with family can be challenging. A young man asks “how can I help my father?” He can start by appreciating his father’s accomplishments.
Q: How Can I Help My Father Grow His Business?
Q: I have been working for my father but it’s hard to get him to try any of my ideas for expanding the business. He started his own business 15 years ago when he was laid off in his mid-40’s. We have a few employees and I have been working for him for about six months after working for other companies for six years after I graduated from college. I have a lot of good ideas for how we can expand but he is very conservative. I am tempted to quit but I can see taking over the business in a few years and growing it to a much more substantial firm.
What suggestions do you have for how to break this deadlock with my father?
A: There may be a lot more to your father’s success than you can see.
It’s no small thing to be successfully self-employed for 15 years. I would try to understand the business as it is before you start to make changes. You don’t say how much experience you have in the business, but following a number of jobs from quote to paid by a satisfied customer would be one place to start. Learn what the keys to success are for bidding and delivering quality work at a profit.
That does not mean you cannot experiment or tinker with the current approach to see if you bring in more work or deliver work at higher quality and profit.
Ask your father what you need to do to join the business, participate and contribute, and ultimately take it over so that he can retire.
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