There are many ways to acquire wealth in this world. No matter where you are in the world, running a family business remains a lucrative, if painstaking, option.
Both of my grandparents made their money from an entrepreneurial spirit. My maternal grandfather moved out West to California in the early fifties from the car capital of the US, Michigan. He worked a year for Goodyear and then started his own business, determined to put them out of business. While Goodyear is obviously still around and kicking, he did manage to put the local branch in Merced, California out of business for the next forty years.
My paternal grandfather had a number of businesses that he ran over the years. He owned a successful honey business as well as a plant nursery famous for its Rhododendrons. In the end he actually made most of his money off of a patent that he made for inventing a more efficient piece of machinery for processing lumber and from selling the property that his nursery and bees were kept on for fifty years.
Now as it turns out, the family business bug has bitten my twin sister and I. Being a dynamic duo it isn’t altogether surprising that we’d consider teaming up to work together. At the moment we are at the very beginning stages of starting a business in eco-friendly housing development. This combines a number of our talents and interests into an interesting proposition.
Obviously with the housing market as it is we are treading carefully to ensure that we have all of our ducks in a row. We are hoping that it will be an avenue for me to invest money from my assignment in Afghanistan. I figure that it is a good prospect of having some seed money to develop our ideas.
My paternal grandmother in also interested in supporting this business endeavor. She believes in the value of family business and would be delighted to help pass on a business to future generations. She is now 91 and would like to see a legacy left.
We are now at the initial planning stages in this process, but we will certainly keep our readers informed as we move through this process.
Readers: We’d be interested to learn what family businesses you have out there?
Best,
Miel
