Juggling Business and Grief

If These Heels Could Talk

Imagine 3 adult siblings with respectful relationships who primarily see each other during holidays. Imagine now that these 3 siblings are faced with planning a parent’s funeral and dissolving a household, estate, and life. The amount of time and work this creates is like another job. And it requires all siblings to step into the challenge in different ways.

It’s a stressful challenge for any sibling group. When one of the siblings owns a business, there is more to consider. For example, the person who owns a business will, out of necessity, have legal and financial partnerships that can help. Siblings, parents, and other close family who are not attuned to the day to day realities of owning a business are unlikely to understand to the time constraints placed on owners. They may assume that owning a business means a vacation whenever you want or need one.

Often, as adults, our family communication patterns haven’t evolved with us. So when we get together in larger family groups (like holidays), we fall back into familiar communication patterns. In times of stress, these communication patterns can be incredibly destructive or incredibly useful. Business owners have unique tools to handle conflict in communication.

Listen in as JoyGenea talks about her recent experience planning a parent’s funeral while keeping her business running. Learn about her successes, like setting clear goals and objectives with her siblings, as well as her challenges, like managing time, relationships, and bureaucracy in a completely different way.