Making time for family outside of business hours isn't the
only way to encourage balance. "Some entrepreneurs are
including their families in their businesses more and more,"
notes Dan Pierce at Northern Illinois University. "Schedules
are getting more flexible, and technology is allowing people to
work from home and interact with their families during the
day."
When Hilbert founded her company, she "hired" her
husband as a part-time evening instructor, while her 8-year-old
helped with bulk mailings. Over the years, Hilbert's children
have held a variety of positions in the company. Hilbert's
daughter did secretarial work for her while in college, and her son
handled marketing while in law school. Today, two of her four
children work in the business--one daughter is the human resources
director and one son is the director of marketing. "We're
a very close family," says Hilbert.
Two years after establishing his firm, Parr married, creating a
blended family with three children. When the children were young,
Parr's wife worked at the business from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., then
went home to be with the kids after school. The children grew up
and the couple later divorced, but Parr's ex-wife remains with
the firm as its marketing director.
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Whether your family members work in the business or not,
it's important to keep them informed of what's happening
with the company. Discussions with your family are important in
both good business times and tough ones, according to Dr. Edward
Hoffman, a New York City clinical psychologist who researches and
writes about organizational behavior. One typical good-news
situation that cries out for family discussion comes when the
company faces sudden growth and must hire more staff or move to a
larger, more expensive facility. "Expansion always carries
risks and stress."
Hoffman emphasizes that it's particularly important to
decide how much information to disclose and when to disclose it if
your spouse or significant other isn't involved in the
operation. For example, if your spouse isn't interested in the
details of management and finances, the two of you should still
talk about the general status of the business, but you may not want
to discuss all the nuts and bolts. "Some compartmentalizing
may be necessary," Hoffman says, "but there's a point
when it becomes self-defeating to put the burden on your
family."
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