This is a very common practice in team building. It could be a spouse who is joining a successful practice or a growing practice. More and more, we are seeing second and third generations working together on real estate teams. The "family business" is a very challenging dynamic in real estate today. I have seen teams that work wonderfully and others that implode from family squabbling to the point that they lose the business and the family, as well.
Champion Team Rule - Nothing is worth losing your family over! When in doubt, don't do it.
Joan, my wife, has worked off and on with me in my business over the last seventeen years of marriage. The first time was almost disastrous both personally and professionally. It wasn't her fault; it was mine. It was from a lack of maturity on my part that the disaster almost happened. The short story is I treated her more like an employee than my wife and equal partner. It's easy to get in that mindset when you have an established business, and you are trying to integrate family either for a season of growth or permanently. If we had talked more about how we would work together; if we had taken the time to establish boundaries, both for home and business and standards of performance, we would have been more successful the first time.
Fortunately for me, we caught the disaster before it became permanent. It also wasn't damaging enough that, when I really needed her again when we established a new company, Real Estate Champions, in 1998, she was instrumental. Real Estate Champions would not be the company it is today without her involvement in those early years. We still use many of the systems she designed years ago.
I can safely say that Joan was never passionate about any of the businesses that we have established together in our seventeen years of marriage. She was and is passionate about helping me and her family succeed. The best arrangement for long-term success is to be sure that whoever the family member is, they must be passionate about more than just you or the money. They need to be passionate about the business of real estate, as well. I know that I can count on Joan to help anytime or anywhere. She will be there right by my side in the trenches when I need it most. When the crisis is over and the problem is solved or the project is completed, she will go back to doing the other valuable things she does and enjoys in life. Her passion is not real estate, training, education, coaching, speaking, or creating intellectual property.
Champion Team Rule - Long-term success of family hires comes out of passion for the business of real estate.
Generational hiring for a real estate team can often happen because of the money and lifestyle. The son or daughter can see the money that their parent makes and the lifestyle they have and want that for themselves. The child will usually see all the good and little of the bad or the work. They will see, in many cases, the finished product of years of business toil and not the path their parent had to tread to get there. The child will need to grasp that concept, even if that child is an adult, to avoid problems.
I wanted to be a dentist and take over my father's dental practice. It wasn't that I had a passion for dentistry; I had a passion to replicate a lifestyle that I enjoyed as a child: the ability to work a four-day workweek; the business to create enough income to fund vacation homes, investments, and early retirement. That was what I was passionate about, and dentistry was the most logical vehicle I could tangibly see to get there.
We all know it didn't work out that way. My passion for dentistry wasn't great enough to push me to apply myself in college to acquire the grades to be able to gain admission to dental school. In fact, my passion wasn't great enough for me to finish college. My life took another path besides the path of dentistry to achieve a four-day workweek, vacation homes, investments, and early retirement.
Don't remake "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly"
Family businesses, in any field, have the chance of being good, bad, or ugly. I have seen every combination in my years of training and coaching in real estate.
I have a client in Orlando who has three of her children in her business. Her son handles all the technology, websites, and computers for her practice. He does a masterful job. Her two daughters handle all the administration, marketing, accounting, scheduling, and client care. One of them is also the office manager and leads the team. I have another client in Long Island, NY who has her daughter in her practice in administration. Her daughter is growing in strength as a young woman and really makes strong changes in her business. The loyalty and trust factor is the glue that holds these teams together in spite of challenges that will arise. The respect these children have for their parents as leaders of the family and leaders of the business makes it work.
I have another client in Southern California who has the bad and, at times, ugly example. Her son has been in her practice for a number of years. He has an entitlement mentality. His production as a salesperson is marginal. His wife now works in the business, as well, and the situation has no solution except sending the kids out on their own to find our how the real world works. My client struggles with that decision because she knows they won't make it on their own. It is truly an example of the bad and ugly that can happen.
Don't get in too deep
It's easy, especially when it's your children, to flex when you wouldn't with anyone else. Even as young as my children are (Wesley is 5 and Annabelle is 20 months), they are starting to learn how to pull the emotional strings with me. After eighteen years of living with me, they will really know how to do it!
When one of your children, who is a member of your team, continually uses emotional arguments or maneuvers that no other team member would ever be allowed to use, or when the standards of performance are continually relaxed for the children over what you do or would do for another member of the team, you are in too deep.
Establishing the boundaries
When having a family team, the boundaries and standards need to be discussed, defined, established in writing, and committed to in writing before joining the team. You can't decide as you go with family. The stakes are just too high. Any time a promotion, advancement, or job change happens, the process must be started all over again:
1. The boundaries of personal life and business life
2. Work hours, breaks, time in and out
3. Work ethic and standards
4. Business vision of core value, core purpose, and envisioned future
5. Organizational structure
6. Adherence to checklists, systems, and procedures already in place
If you are hiring a family member to a sales position, there are additional standards:
1. Sales expectations in terms of how much and how soon
2. Prospecting expectations daily, weekly, and monthly
3. Sales ratios that should be attained in what time frame: contacts to leads, leads to appointments, appointments to closings
4. Adherence to your approved scripts and dialogues
5. Amount of time committed to role playing and practicing their sales scripts
6. Personal education requirements: reading, listening to CDs, seminars attended, designations achieved
The more time invested on the front end to establish solid benchmarks and standards, the higher the probability the movie that will play of your team will be "The Good, The Best, and The Champion"!
