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Vancouver-based product designer Nicola Lott teamed up with her mother Joan Thornton, a retired Vancouver Island-based Special Education Tutor, to form Notch Hill Educational Products Inc. providing Literacy Learning Programs to busy parents who want to have fun spending quality educational times with their children. John Lehmann/Globe and MailThe Globe and Mail



Joan Thornton worked as a teacher and special education tutor for more than 30 years. She developed board and card games to help young children practice literacy skills they were lacking.

Her daughter, Nicola Lott, has dyslexia and occasionally struggled in school. Ms. Thornton's games, and her patience, helped Ms. Lott conquer any troublesome curriculum when she was growing up.

Ms. Thornton, who lives near Nanaimo, B.C., retired to Vancouver Island a number of years ago but she didn't want to see her "knowledge and experience go to waste."

She got together with her daughter, now a product designer living in Vancouver, who suggested they compile the games into programs so that parents can have fun playing the games with their kids.

And Notch Hill Educational Products Inc. was born.

"I think that when family businesses are working well, they're the greatest organizations in the world," says Jim Reger, president of The Reger Group, a consulting firm in Victoria that's a family business with expertise in helping other family firms. "They truly do have a commitment to a shared set of values" and they can be very effective in transmitting those values to another generation.

Mr. Reger outlines three separate but overlapping spheres of influence: family, business, and ownership or shareholders.

"The biggest vulnerability is that they mix family ownership and business issues on a regular basis," he says.

Non-family businesses have forums for dealing with problems, such as management and strategic planning meetings. For family businesses, Mr. Reger recommends family council meetings, where they agree on a shared vision and on methods for resolving conflict. He recommends meeting several times a year "just like a board of directors" and put any issues on the table for family members who are in the business and those who are not.

It's also a place to develop family employment policies. "Is working in the business a privilege or is it a right?"

Ms. Thornton and Ms. Lott began to develop their venture in 2007, and they launched the first product in June of 2009, designed for learning the alphabet. The products are now sold across Canada and there's interest from potential customers in Asia and Europe.

The roles of mother and daughter in the business are "quite defined," says Ms. Thornton, and that took place right at the beginning in a business plan. It's one reason why there's so little friction. The other is that they can be "pretty brutal" with each other, Ms. Lott says, and neither takes offence. They're also more tolerant because they know what's going on in each other's lives. "I can't think of another business partner who would be willing to help out on so many different levels as a mum," says Ms. Lott, describing how her mother came to babysit recently.

The major problem can be that they think too much alike, and they sometimes enlist the help of "our husbands," Ms. Thornton says.

"I've come full circle," Ms. Lott says. "As a kid, my mum used to teach me with the games, because I was really slow with math and grammar. They really had a profound influence on my life. … And here we are putting these games together for parents so their kids can succeed the way I was able to. I just think that's really neat."



Mr. Reger says some families develop best practices that include going to work somewhere else first, so you know "what it's like in the real world." To avoid family feuds, he recommends having non-family directors on the board.

He says his mantra is: "Treat the business like a business, treat the family like a family, and treat ownership with respect." He says places in the world where family businesses are most successful, such as Europe and South America, recognize that their most valuable resource is "human capital."







What about business that bring grandparents and children together?

Ranka Burzan adds her personality and her presence to Solutions Organizing Simple in Vancouver.

Now 62, she was 56 when she started the company that de-clutters, organizes, cleans, downsizes, and stages homes for sale. She has always had family working for her, but last year her 25-year-old grandson Dustin approached her.

"We were just talking and he said: 'I really would like to join you, grandma.' And I said 'I would like to have you.' And that's how we started."

Ms. Burzan says she "plainly explained to him what I do and how I go about it. 'Please don't waste your time or mine. If this is not for you it's okay, honey.'" She says it works well because "he has his work cut out for him and I have mine."

She enjoys working with seniors and she says her grandson "loves organizing garages."

"My grandson is my right hand. I don't know what I would do without him."

She says other family members had no problem with her making Dustin a partner: "Some family members just want to work part-time, when I have a big job."

Ms. Burzan, who has also developed a line of cleaning products and has written a book about what she does, says Solutions Organizing Simple is a family business: "Whoever wants to run it after I'm gone, I will make sure it's run well before I go. Although I'm not going anywhere," she adds.

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