Lessons from Entrepreneurship
Family businesses are special. Today, Father’s Day, I honor all dads who scratched an entrepreneurial itch to provide for their families.
The Me-Suite: Father’s Day Tribute
I grew up in a family business called Peters Manufacturing Company. I guess you could say the business was in the healthcare industry. It produced medical examination tables and cabinetry for doctors’ offices. The products were made of wood and upholstery, with the occasional metal accoutrements like doorknobs or stirrups.
One product in the catalog was the model SC1000. This was a wooden, upholstered chair with a bottom cushion that raised up. Underneath hid a portable potty for adults. The SC stood for “secret crapper.” We still get a family chuckle out of that. We’ve always shared an appreciation for a little bathroom humor.
I worked in the shop after school and in the summers. In elementary school, I wrote shipping labels and swept. If you really want to learn the fine art of sweeping, learn on sawdust. In middle school, I ran the drill press, still small enough that I stood on a block to reach the feed handle. In high school, I was trusted with the stapling and gluing of the upholstery to the table tops. This step was less forgiving, so it was a bit of a promotion. My skills never elevated to the staining area.
Many of these jobs were minimum wage jobs. I remember one high school dropout rising to floor manager and getting a company car. Reliable transportation is everything. We’d have applicants come in to grab the job form. They’d return to the parking lot where a more literate friend would help them read the sections and document their work experience. I once saw my father teach a young man how to read a calendar. He’d adjust the shift work during extreme weather. In the steel building, the sun became a Bunsen burner in summer and a cryovac in winter.
Dad would loan money to people all the time to help them get through a rough patch. Mom clearly didn’t like that because she knew what would happen. And she was right. No one ever paid the loan back.
Mom worked the office for some of those years, taking orders, paying bills, invoicing. I learned a lot about money being around the day-to-day conversations between my parents. AP. AR. Bill of Lading. Net 30 Days. Discounts. Loans. Cash flow. Wages. Garnished wages. Payroll taxes. Bonuses. Leakage (as in theft). This is also where I got exposed to customer service, the good, the bad, and the ugly of it all.
Somehow, my father managed to run this all-consuming family business and still find time to fish with us, pull us skiing behind a bass boat, garden at a pro level, attend ball games and operettas. I don’t have a single memory of him missing something that was important to me. I’m sure that must have happened, but I didn’t tally any on a chit it seems.
I miss my dad on Father’s Day 2022. This photo was taken on our 30-mile bike ride. He died two months later of a brain tumor. I honor the business man, the family man, the good man. I learned so much from him about the role work plays in your life.
