02/ 13/ 2003
by Kathleen Landis
It's always Mother's Day at these small companies, where the business partners carry the additional titles of mother and daughter.
If you were to mold the perfect business partner, what characteristics would you choose? Certainly, you'd look for someone whose goals matched yours. Someone in whom you could trust completely. Someone whom you deeply respected. Someone whose commitment to the partnership was like a commitment to family. Someone, well...someone just like your mother.
As MyBusiness discovered in the following businesses, the mother-daughter bonds run deep, especially when mother and daughter are business partners.
Based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Small Business Administration's (SBA's) Office of Advocacy estimates that there are 9.1 million women-owned firms today, employing 27.5 million people and contributing $3.6 trillion in sales and revenues to the U.S. MyBusiness talked to four women entrepreneurs who have taken women-owned business to a new level.
Playing With the Big Kids
West Side Kids is just the type of specialty toy store that owner Alice Bergman says she wished she had in her neighborhood when her children were young. What separates West Side Kids, for 20 years located on Manhattan's Upper West Side, is its product mix. Specialty toys, "some from one-item vendors that chains won't bother with," share space with old favorites like Scrabble and Monopoly. Merchandise in the store, hand-selected from 1,200 vendors, is gauged for play value, non-gender bias and multi-cultural appeal.
In 1995, Bergman's daughter Jennifer stepped in to help with the store's physical expansion. Jennifer never considered staying longer than the year she'd offered. But, as her responsibilities increased, Jennifer discovered a career, and now holds the title of vice president.
Mother and daughter each have their business niches. Alice does the bulk of ordering, and all of the paperwork for the $1.5 million business. Jennifer's, whose bailiwick is merchandising, and working with vendors, spends most of her time on the sales floor. "Jenny has an incredible eye, and she's a great shopper," says Alice. I can't imagine going to trade shows without her."
Both admit that working together has its rough moments, according to Jennifer. "You have a lot more baggage, because you can push each other's buttons." But on a positive note, "I'm working with my mother, and she's my boss, but I can be more honest with her about how I feel about something than I could if she was 'just my boss.' "
Along with the challenges of family dynamics, West Side Kids has also faced business challenges. One of the biggest came in 1999, when a major toy chain opened nearby. After growing consistently for nearly two decades, West Side Kid's sales declined dramatically for 18 months. The turnaround came late in 2000 when the company dropped three major vendors whose service became unreliable. This added the shelf space to merchandise specialty lines in a larger fashion, and returned growth to double digits.
Although it wasn't in her original business plan, Alice looks to Jennifer as her successor. Jennifer's recent conversations with the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) strengthened her optimism in being able to take over. "I didn't go to law school, so I can't work with my dad," she quips.
Forecasting Success
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| Fawn Snook, left, and Marline McGrew in their year-round Christmas shop, one of seven Wisconsin-based stores they own. |
Marline McGrew built her business on trends.
In the 1960s, when dried flowers were hot, McGrew and her young daughter, Fawn, sold arrangements at flea markets. In the early '70s Marline shifted to craft classes, and plaster painting. When classes outgrew their home, Fawn urged her mother to think bigger. In 1972 Marline opened Marline's Creative Ideas, in downtown, historic Cedarburg, Wis.
Marline's grew dramatically, as McGrew forecast trends. First she added an import shop, then a year-round Christmas shop. When home accessories went "country" so did Marline, who chose a "country" theme for her General Store.
In like fashion, as trends faded or changed, Marline closed stores and opened new ones. Today Marline's Creative Ideas includes seven craft, home decor and floral-related outlets spread between Cedarburg, and neighboring West Bend.
As Marline's evolved, Marline's ad hoc business advisor, Fawn, left Cedarburg.
"She needed to spread her wings and see what else was out there beyond Marline's," says McGrew. But in 1992 Fawn Snook, then married, rejoined her mother in business.
Snook recognized that to compete in the marketplace, "We didn't have the luxury of having a 'mom and pop' operation any longer." She computerized Marline's, created spreadsheets, and built a Web site: http://www.stampincedarburg.com.
Snook says she sees things in "two dimensions" her mother, in three. "I can lay out a really good newspaper ad; she can lay out an amazing window," she explains. Their partnership is "a wonderful combination of what Mom's good at, and what I'm good at."
Since design is Marline's passion, she devotes her energies to the floral design and home furnishings stores. Snook manages the two rubber stamp and scrapbook stores, where her heart lies.
McGrew admits that it hasn't all been easy, especially for her daughter. "It's difficult to walk in a mom's footsteps and walk behind," she says. "But now I think Fawn and I are walking side by side."
Side-by-Side Selling
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| Robin Cale, left, and her mother Barbara Simon team up to sell property in Virginia. |
While they market themselves as "The Mother/Daughter Team," there is still friendly competition between realtor-partners Barbara Simon and Robin Cale.
"New clients assume that since my mother is a realtor, I wanted to be one too, 'when I grew up,' " jokes Cale, 38. In fact, she explains, it was her mother who left a 10-year business hiatus to join her in business. "She didn't have to get a job; I did."
Simon and Cale work for McEnearney Associates, a family-owned firm in Arlington, Va., that fosters family relationships. In 2000 the duo tallied $13 million in residential sales for their office. Once the only mother/daughter pair in their office, three others now join them. While it's gratifying to see them emerge, The Mother/Daughter Team emphasize that they are the only two working as "absolute equals."
At age 56, Simon contemplates retirement—to her that means "having weekends free." So, as responsibilities shift more to Simon's daughter, Cale has the last word. "Now I get to tell Mom what to do, and when to do it," Cale teases.
This Company Delivers
On the job, Kathy Pescetti and Joyce Riffel are all business. But beyond the front door of Admail West, Inc., Riffel answers to "Mom."
Riffel, Pescetti, and spouses bought a Sacramento, Calif.-based direct mail business in 1989. When their husbands opted out, mother and daughter purchased all holdings, and incorporated. Then reality hit.
"We looked at each other and said, 'Okay. What do we do?' " Riffel, company vice president, recalls. "Kathy started selling; I started hiring, and looking for equipment. It was very, very tough; but that makes you work harder, and the successes more rewarding."
In 2000, Admail West processed 83 million pieces of mail, sending it to the far reaches of the globe for clients including the American Red Cross, California State Lottery, AT&T and others. A fulfillment department, whose first service was envelope stuffing, now conducts assembly-line collation of thousands of kits, binders and folders in one shift.
Every day is 'beat the clock' according to the busy pair. This is why mother and daughter value communication and trust so highly. "We like to talk things over if a decision is to be made so there are no surprises in person," says Riffel. "In Kathy, I know that I have somebody I can really trust, somebody who is there for me if I need her."
"I know that the business wouldn't be what it is today if I wasn't in partnership with my mom," Pescetti, president, adds. "There were times, when I didn't have time to review the numbers; Joyce totally handled that side of the company. If she hadn't, I wouldn't have been able to put my focus where I needed it. It's a tremendous advantage, to have that type of partnership."
In a male-dominated industry, separating family from business has worked well for this duo. "I think we revolutionized direct mail in our geographic area as a result of how we approached our business," says Pescetti.
As for the future, Pescetti admits that, "My biggest concern is that one day Joyce is going to retire. That's the hardest thing for me to come to grips with."
Help for mother-daughter companies
NetMarquee, at http://www.fambiz.com, is an online resource of articles for and about family owned businesses. Topics covered range from succession issues to inter-generational conflicts, with advice from experts and other family business owners.
Office of Women's Business Ownership, http://www.onlinewbc.gov, is the Small Business Administration's resource for women entrepreneurs.
RSM McGladrey, Family Business Group, http://www.rsmmcgladrey.com, are family business consultants who address owner-managed business concerns such as family/business overlap, conflict management and succession planning issues.
This article originally appeared in the May/June 2001issue of MyBusiness Magazine, NFIB's member magazine.
