Keeping it in the family

Over five and a half years from February 2001, I was proud to work with an amazing team and a fabulous business partner to create a real estate agency that achieved beyond our wildest dreams for the business. First of all our managing director when we started the company (me!) was just 21, we were named the 24th fastest growing company in Australia (BRW 2004 Fast 100) and I was named Telstra’s youngest ever National Young Business Woman of the Year in 2002.

Obviously along the way we also had our challenges and our difficult times growing our team from 3 people to over 50 – but far and away one of the most interesting experiences for me was that our first full time staff member was my own Mum!

To follow are some tips and pieces of advice I would happily pass on from my experiences to anyone who is working in a business or considering employing family.

1. Loyalty guarantee. You can rest easily in most cases knowing that a family member will always look out for your best interests. Having my Mum on staff meant I always had someone in my corner and always had a friendly ear when I needed to vent.

2. Don’t just assume it’s going to be great. I would recommend sitting down prior to the work arrangement starting and discussing the following key issues.
   • Establishing a process if there is a disagreement
   • Confirming that one person in the relationship will be able to take direction and sometimes critisism from the other (even if for the rest of your lives it has been the other way around!)
   • Establishing a defined exit strategy if one or both parties don’t feel the arrangement is working out

3. Inside / Outside Rules. Define how your relationship will work inside and outside of work. For example, inside work in my relationship obviously it wasn’t going to be that appropriate for me to say Mum – so we went with Laurel (even though she often used Darling instead of my name!)

4. Be Flexible. Working with family can be very rewarding, but it can also lend itself towards conflict at times. Make a commitment early on that you’re going to be flexible and that what happens at work isn’t going to impact on the valuable family relationship you have outside of work.
   
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   Kirsty Dunphey is an author, speaker and entrepreneur who started her first business at 15, opened her own real estate agency at 21 and retired a self made multi-millionaire at 27. To sign up to Kirsty Dunphey's weekly email, go to www.kirstydunphey.com

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