Keep it in the Family

This week, I learned a lot about starting and running a family owned business. This was something that immediately caught my interest as my sister’s and I hope to start a business together later in life. We are both studying construction management, and the hope is to start up a business of buying about rental properties near colleges for students to stay in during school. We would initially renovate these properties, but then later on we would rent out these spaces so we could continue earning a profit from the properties that we bought and renovated.

From the case studies and articles that we were required to read, I learned that there is much to consider when opening up a family owned and run business. First of all, you must have a written-out business plan, and established roles and responsibilities within that company. You must NOT treat your family business like it is your family, but rather you must run that business like you would any other business. Lastly, you must have a successor plan. Things to consider is whether you want the family business to stay within the family, or if you could care less who gets it after you’re done with it.

As you can tell, there are a lot of factors to be consider, and this week has proven to be very educational and informative for me.

$100 Challenge Update:

I completed the challenge to make $100 with the business of my choice. I was able to get enough babysitting jobs to make over $100 in profit before the end of this semester!