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March 17, 2011 * Portrait: SMALL BUSINESS — BIG IMPACT 11

Family-owned businesses face important issues such as how to get along together day to day; how to build and preserve wealth; how to innovate; and how to transfer leadership to the next generation.

— Austin Family Business Program

By GLENNIS McNEAL

hen a family business works, it gives people the opportunity to work day-to-day with those they love the most. It’s magical, and you can’t buy that,” says Pat Frishkoff.

Frishkoff, 2010 Family Business Adviser of Distinction and founding director of the Oregon State University’s Austin Family Business Program, speaks with authority. From 1985 until her retirement in 2002, she helped family businesses succeed. One of the pro-gram’s missions is to help family business owners plan for the future.

Family-owned businesses sampled for this issue of the Washington County Portrait enthusiastically acknowl-edge the magic of the situation. At the same time, they are beginning to explore how and when to extend the magic to the next generation.

Here’s a look at serving food, selling furniture, oper-ating a bowling center and conducting a dental practice where family relationships are the heart of the business.

Family on both sides of the counter

Tigard/Tualatin Village Inn, 17070 S.W. 72nd Ave., Tualatin

The roots of this family restaurant run deep. In 1959 James Mola, uncle of owner Connie Watts, co-founded the Village Inn restaurant chain. Robert Bailey, her father, opened the state’s first Village Inn at the Lloyd Center. The Tigard/Tualatin store opened in 1977. Watts has worked there since 1979 and took ownership with her brother in 1988.

Ryan Sweeney, her son, has worked full time as gen-eral manager since his graduation from the University of Oregon in 2007. His cousin Max Bailey, a senior at Tualatin High School, is a bus boy. Second cousins Jordan and Devin Eck work there, too.

Daughter Meghan Bailey-Sweeney is the only hold-out. “She has absolutely no interest in food service,” her mother acknowledges.

Now Connie Watts is inching toward retirement, working Tuesdays and Sundays. “I like Sundays because

that’s when our regular customers come in. They’re like family, too. You could say I have family on both sides of the counter,” she says, her voice warm with pleasure. Son Ryan is more than willing to take over when his mother is ready for full retirement. “We’ve started to for-malize that process,” he says, through discussions with his mother and legal advisers.

She welcomes his desire to succeed her. “I’m happy for him and happy for me. When the time comes, I can just leave and not worry. I’ve never pressured him to take over.”

However, she’s determined to have a succession plan in place before she makes her exit.

“My father, wanting to be fair to all his children, planned to divide restaurant ownership among us. I had been active in the business for years. I was concerned that I’d have partners who didn’t understand, or even like, what we did. Sorting it out was difficult. I don’t want to repeat that in my own family.”

A crafty family business model is more than a hobby

Expressions Futons and Furniture, 17705 S.W. Pacific Highway, Tualatin

When Larry and Susan Gouze started business in

Families who make business their pleasure look down the line in search of the future

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JAIME VALDEZ/Times Newspapers