Tabatha knows from her own personal experience that when you have to work with relatives, all business is personal. But, she tells Cheddar, “if you can’t trust your family, who can you trust?”
She says one of the biggest mistakes families make when they work together is that no one takes charge. Family members assume the sister or mother or husband will handle something, and nothing gets done.
“I think it’s definitely hard to be in business with your family because of the emotion,” she told Cheddar in an interview. “They’re always going to be family. There’s always going to be family dinners and birthdays and celebrations and events that you have to share with them, so you have to work harder to get through. But I think it can be incredibly rewarding.”
Coffey, who advises family businesses on her new show “Relative Success with Tabatha,” says that a strong foundation and proper planning will help ease the struggles.
“The family dynamic, you have to move through it, and you have to move through it before you get into the business,” Coffey said. “Make sure the roles are really clear, what everyone is going to be responsible for, so that they’re not just waiting around for another family member to come and clean-up behind them.”
“Relative Success with Tabatha” airs on Bravo at 10 pm ET.
