Son Jed, currently president, sold telephone equipment and worked in the real estate brokerage business before coming on board. His brother Greg, now president of Landmark Parking, the family's Baltimore and Allentown, Pa., business, worked two years for another national parking operator before joining the family enterprise. Their father also took pains to avoid sibling rivalry. He helped all four of us in different businesses. His sister ran a record storage company, which she's since sold, and his other brother makes cabinets.
Most employees see managers simply as someone with whom they work.
That's not the case in a family business. The manager may be the bully who beat the stuffing out of you when you were kids. Likewise, parents may have a hard time distancing themselves from children who once needed constant caretaking. So can family ranking. Linda Kellogg discovered that firsthand when she and her sister joined the family business, Boyd's Flowers.