We are family
- Jo-Anne Hui
- 2 September 2009
As little girls, sisters Andrea and Joen Tan spent their days growing up on the North Shore in a house that overlooked the Ku-ring-gai National Park. They enjoyed horse riding and watching the possums, lorikeets and kookaburras from the nearby bushland area. Holidays were spent visiting relatives in Malaysia.
Little did they know, that one day, they would start the Andrea & Joen
shoe empire, which would attract a celebrity following and feature in Australian Fashion Week. While some may claim that family and business don't mix, the Tan sisters wouldn't have
it any other way.
According to Andrea Tan, parties external to the family were more concerned with the sisters working together, when in reality it "wasn't really a big deal". In fact, Joen Tan claims that in some ways it is easier working with her sister than with non-family members.
"As sisters, you already have years of arguing and getting over it behind you," she says. "When you set up a business with a friend or a business partner, you have to be careful of what you say. Your interpretation is different to theirs. When you're sisters, you're both on the same page because you've grown up together."
"As sisters, you already have years of arguing and getting over it behind you,"
However, Andrea advises that the most important thing for budding family businesses is for members to establish clearly defined roles, as it is easy to "just mix them up all the time". For example, Joen takes care of the production department, while Andrea oversees the general administration of the business.
Family rules are not business rules
Philippa Taylor, CEO of not-for-profit organisation Family Business Australia (FBA), agrees and says the criteria for each person's role should be determined from the outset, including salary packages.
According to Taylor, people will often create a job for a family member who needs a job. "It's difficult for a business to pay out a salary for a role that's not really required," she says.
"You'll find Mum will want to pay the children what they need, whereas Dad believes they should be paid for what they earn. The CEO brother shouldn't be earning the same as the brother who is running the warehouse. In other words, equal isn't always fair. People should be paid market-related salaries; what they earn is not what they need."
Furthermore, before family members begin working together, it is essential to prepare exit strategies and discuss proper remuneration policies, "when they're all still enthusiastic and while they're still talking to each other".
"They need to be mindful of how to get out of it, long before they arrive at the point when it is clear things aren't working out as planned," says Taylor. "They need to have a strategy and proper shareholding arrangements with family members at the outset."
Don't bring work home
For husband-and-wife team Lou and Tony Vacher, who have just opened retro hair salon Sterling HQ, the most pleasurable aspect of their working relationship is the fact that they can now spend time together. Lou works behind the counter, while Tony tends to the tresses of their customers.
Prior to opening Sterling HQ, the Vachers worked in separate businesses - Lou ran a lingerie store and Tony worked in another salon - making it difficult for the couple to see each other, as Tony often returned home late at night.
"There are always going to be times when you see too much of each other, but we have a big shop," jokes Tony.
Lou adds that in order to balance their marital and business relationships, the couple tries to keep the shop talk only during working hours.
"You can't go home and bitch about your boss; you can't take that tension home," she says. "We make sure that at the end of the day, as soon as we leave the salon, that's where it stays."
Communication skills
According to communications manager Samantha Marks, who works with her de facto partner Ian Lowe at Sliced Marketing, one of the most important factors for a working couple is knowing how to communicate.
Marks and Lowe are developing an online fundraising platform called SportCard, which assists clubs, charities and not-for-profits generate funds.
She recalls a moment when she pulled her partner up on his behaviour after she discovered that he had not yet prepared for a critical presentation.
"I came into the office and saw him in front of the computer, hacking around and just doing general stuff. So I picked up the file and threw it onto the keyboard in front of him," she laughs.
"We're both very direct communicators, so we can speak to each other bluntly. So I said, ‘What are you doing sitting here, mucking around when we've got this coming up? You need to get onto this. I need to see these 10 slides drafted up within the next 48 hours. Get on it, Sunny Jim'."
Marks is also quick to add that she and her partner both "kick each other along" and offer a helping hand in times of procrastination, or when the other hits a wall.
"We're lucky because we both communicate in the same way and in the same style," she says. "We're open and we can read each other well. The other particularly useful thing is Ian is extremely supportive around the house. [The couple shares three children between them.]
"I'm not expected to run the home and the business all by myself. We share everything very equally and I consider myself quite blessed."
Blood is thicker than printer toner
It is usually during the most difficult moments in a family business that members pull together and unite, strengthening their relationships with each other.
Michael Stillwell, director of Stillwell Motor Group, has worked in his second-generation business for around 40 years. The business was founded by his father, who passed away after suffering from a sudden heart attack at work on a Saturday afternoon in 1999. Michael and his brothers and sisters took up the baton.
"Shortly after he died, the major focus was on survival," he says. "It was survival for the business and it was survival for us as a family. And then two or three years later, [we were able] to look back and say, ‘Hey, we made that transition and we survived and as part of doing that, we've prospered'.
"It was challenging, but we were very lucky because we had a common sense of purpose, and we had worked on and off with each other during previous years, so I think there was a good understanding of each other's abilities in what we could individually contribute to the business."
Stillwell adds that when his father died, the siblings became actively involved in Family Business Australia, which helped them to understand the challenges of succession planning and realise that they were not alone in the problems they faced.
Unfortunately, not all families are able to cope in times of crisis. Andrea Tan says it is essential that members should not let the down periods, such as the current economic crisis, affect family relationships.
"You read stories about brothers who split the company because they won't get along," she says. "You have to think, yeah, you're going through a hard time and you might have to make a decision to liquidate - but at the end of the day, you're family." #
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