Small Manufacturing Life: Love, Courtship, Marriage, and Proprietorship

This blog post was originally published on thefabricator.com/tubepipejournal in February 2021, by Lisa Wertzbaugher of Wertzbaugher Consulting.

Running a family-owned business isn’t easy. Certainly many small manufacturing companies share roots with a family tree. Columnist Lisa Wertzbaugher, who has worked in both family-owned and non-family metalworking companies, has some insights based on her experiences.  

According to various data sources, more than 1.2 million married couples run small businesses together in the U.S. Because 98% of manufacturing companies are small businesses, there’s a good chance many of them are run by husband-and-wife teams. Mine is one of them. 

While readers know me as a business consultant, I also own a small welding, fabrication, and trucking firm with my husband, Jason, in eastern Iowa. My background in a family-run business goes further than that — my parents owned a midsize steel tube fabricating company for 27 years. I worked for that business as a child, left the industry after finishing college, and many years later returned to my parents’ business for a stint as an executive. 

Observing my parents running a business, augmented with my own experience, has given me a unique take on the advantages and challenges of having a spouse as a business partner. Sometimes it goes really well, and sometimes it’s terrible. 

Regardless of the severity of the ups and downs, I can honestly say that leaving my full-time job to join my husband two years ago was the best career move I’ve made. It has taken some time to work out our roles, but at this point, we have a system that works well for us. 

Counting Contributions 

Jason and I have complementary skills and backgrounds. There isn’t a lot of overlap, so we don’t get in each other’s way. He focuses on the operations, and I handle the financial and revenue strategy. I don’t have a commercial driver’s license and I don’t know how to weld, and he’s never done revenue projections. In this regard, it’s really no different than any other company I’ve worked for — no sense in two people doing the same job. Jason and I divide the tasks and consult each other for advice as needed. If we are buying equipment, he’s in charge, and if we are setting the CapEx budget for the year, I am. This doesn’t mean we always agree, but we default to the expert for the final decision in each situation. 

We respect each other’s workload and sacrifice now, but it took us a while to get here. The early days of a business are tough, which is why most don’t survive. When I was working full time at my previous job, we lived off my income and reinvested our company’s profit into capital. We even used excess household income from my job for purchases, and I was crabby at times. The business felt like another mouth to feed, and I resented it. 

Once I started working solely for our company, I had a new appreciation of Jason’s workload and personal sacrifice. His contribution goes far beyond mine, and I’m grateful he put up with me in those early years. I also accept the short-term sacrifices that lead to long-term gains. I will happily drive the same minivan for 10 years if it means we can buy more semi-trucks. 

Counting Blessings 

Have you ever heard of a P&L date night? It doesn’t sound glamorous, but we go out to dinner at the end of each month and talk strategy. We have three little kids, so it is actually very glamorous for us. Most small businesses fall into the trap of day-to-day operational focus and no vision planning, and for a while we were guilty of this as well. 

So, we take the last Sunday of each month to review the profit-and-loss statement year-to-date, compare goals of the current year versus prior year, discuss new hires, review new business opportunities, and make decisions. We literally remove ourselves from the business, and it’s amazing what we accomplish in a couple of hours. Vision and strategy don’t have to take a lot of time, but they have to be done to maximize success. 

Counting All Contributions 

I’m active in our business, but many spouses are joint owners and silent partners. This was more of my mother’s role, and such individuals still bring tremendous value. Their perspective should be considered objective and balanced input. They are not caught up in the daily routine and have little in the way of bias. My mother had not worked actively in the business for years, but when we created a board of directors, we insisted she participate. She had some of the best recommendations. 

Every member of the family contributes in some way to make the business succeed. Active or inactive, everyone has a role.