how does a small business owner navigate the workplace when their mother father, siblings are part of the workplace. the good and bad of a family business. coming up next on a special mother's day edition of "your business." small businesses are revitalizing the economy and american express open is here to

help. that's why we are proud to present "your business" on msnbc.@ws hi there, everyone. i'm j.j. ramberg and welcome to "your business, the show dedicated to helping your small business grow. since today is mother's day, we thought we'd devote our entire business to running a family business. christina and linda have always been close, so it was only natural that linda started helping christina out when she started her jewelry company, christina v. neither of them ever guessed that linda would become the number one employee.

it's a tuesday morning in huntington bay, long island. christina sheldon and her mom linda are in her kitchen making lunch for some friends. >> how many times do you think you've been in this exact position, mom and daughter preparing a meal together? >> a billion. >> too many. i don't know. every day this happens. every day. >> but this isn't just another social lunch, this lunch is about business and the business is christina v. christina's 8-year-old jewelry company. >> maybe once a month or something i will have a group of women over for lunch, it will always be different people and these are women that i rely heavily on when i have a new business idea a new model just that i want to bounce off and get their honest opinions. >> it's fitting that the lunch is happening at linda's house because the house is also the headquarters for the company whose offices are right downstairs in the basement. and because the number one employee at christina v is linda. >> could you have ever have

guessed that this would han, that you would get a job and be working for your daughter? >> never in a million years. and i think maybe that's why it works well. it just happened so naturally. >> christina started selling her jewelry in college. at the end of one show early on, it occurred to her that she could make a career of this. >> all of the pieces were gone and we had orders for i think 67 pieces and i was a bit overwhelmed, but i kind of thought, wow, i made that much money in three hours? this is exciting. this is worth expanding. >> so when she graduated, she set up shop in her parents' basement. >> when christina came home from college i was just naturally saying, what can i do for you? what can i help you? >> before she had kids linda had been a dancer and dance teacher, but when christina and her brother and sister came along linda gave up her career. >> i definitely wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. it's my number one. it still is. it always will be. and that's why i left dance and

become a mom. >> how did you turn from mom helping out your daughter because you thought she needed some help you guys were chatting, to mom as employee? >> well i think the evolution of christina v. you know all of a sudden she became more busy and she had more pieces to make and i naturally was there. >> i mean, it's in my mom's character, you know us, her children were always her priority so she started basic stringing, you know and then as i got busier she educated herself and started taking classes on wire wrapping different techniques. >> today linda is in charge of production making some of the most intricate pieces herself and getting everything ready for the company that produces the rest. >> what's it like to work together? >> it's great. >> the best. >> it's the best. >> we have fun. >> we have fun. >> i mean it's productive. we're both working hard but it also doesn't seem like work, you

know? it's fun. >> they both say it took a little adjustment in the beginning. christina had to get used to being the boss. >> at one point she kind of said christina when we're down here, when we're in the office you know you need to give me direction and treat me as anyone else. >> angela walsh who works with christina v says the roles are clear. >> do i consider mother and daughter? we have our own duties and special jobs we have to do. it doesn't seem like that. >> but the mother/daughter relationship is never far from the forefront. francine rexer was one of christina v's first customers for her store rexer hr parks. she loves christina's customer service and -- >> the family is the food. it's a joyous thing because it's like a holiday with another family and you're together with them. >> and advisors appreciate the family atmosphere. >> because people are just really talking personally. they're really talking from the heart. >> for linda and christina, who have always been close working

together has made them even closer. >> i had never known the career side of mom, you know? and i would hear stories about how she was so diligent, such a hard worker, but could never really translate it. so it's been really unique as a daughter. i see all of those qualities every single day. >> how does it make you feel when you hear your daughter talk about you as a business person? she knew you as a mother growing up and now she has so much praise for you as a business person. >> you know i stand listening and my heart was just full. to hear those words was the ultimate. >> today christina v is growing quickly. they sell in boutiques, high end hotels, on the christina v website, but as the company continues to expand and change there is one thing that will remain constant. >> can you guys imagine not working together now? >> no. i would miss you so much. i would be so sad. >> i can't imagine.

>> nine years ago i started my company good shop with my brother as my co-founder. before that my brother had started a company with my mother. and my father worked with his father. for us, this works. we all really enjoy working with each other, but you know what, running a family business is really hard for a lot of people. tensions can run high and feelings get in the way of business. meet two entrepreneurs who enlisted the help of their parents and had to figure out their own ways to balance what could have become the slippery slope of working with family. >> owning a clothing boutique was always janine harvey's dream dream. >> this is what i like ultimately want to do with my life. >> in 2011 at the age of 21 she opened a boutique in new jersey with you help from her parents but this help wasn't a handout, it was a business agreement. >> i really wanted to treat them as investors, not just my

parents giving me money. i took that as a loan from my parents and we set up a plan to kind of pay back along the way. >> her parents, helen and john harvey, saw janine as a smart investment. she had always shown a love for fashion, and after realizing college wasn't a right fit, janine proved she had a natural knack in retail as a manager of a nearby clothing store. >> it's brilliant because here instead of me shelling out hundreds of thousands of dollars, i'm shelling out less than one semester. >> there are obvious percs to having your biggest supporters as your investors. >> you're able to have the conversations where you're saying, oh we're planning on this and that's why i can't pay this amount back right now but i can pay it back then and with a normal investor they would say, well, that's too bad. you need to pay back x. >> i didn't really get us an official resume. i'm still waiting for that.

>> i'm a long way. i'm not very punctual. he knows the resume. >> i know the resume. >> when bud cullinson was ready to build a business infusion sciences in maryland, he didn't have to look far. >> he knew i had the business background. >> while linda, his right hand uses his first name. >> it's easier if he refers to me as linda. >> really? he can call her something else as well. >> i think it's more linda as senior director as opposed to mom. >> linda, who's an entrepreneur in her own right having founded a line of skin care, admits it's tough to not always be mom. >> he's my child, he's my son and i see that probably first. we're here to do business and we do business. we focus on business but he's my son. >> bud hired linda because he knew they had complimentary skills. >> he's more the scientist. he's methodical and i'm mouthy and all over the place and i

think we just -- >> i'm a little bit laid back, i guess. if i weren't we'd probably -- >> kill each other. >> the pairing has proven successful with the youth infusion, all natural multi-vitamin powder formula. >> my mother knows how to deal with fires. >> i have a lot of contacts from the past so i kind of know the ropes, what you need to do with manufacturing, what has to be done. >> youth infusion is now sold on the company's website and at retailers like the vitamin shop. while they don't hide their family ties, it's not front and center in conversation but they do blog about it on their website and may admit that working with family isn't always easy. >> you don't want to just bring in family because they're family because you may have an awkward family party mix to go to one. >> i just have fired him. >> but they say it can also be entertaining. >> i have my certain ways of doing things and linda has her ways of doing things and because she's -- >> i'm right.

i'm always right. >> she's always right. even when she's wrong she's right. >> i'm not wrong. >> the cullinsons say that around business they try to not take things personally. >> with business i don't hold back. no i'm very honest. >> one of the keys to success with anything, of course, is communication. if you have something on your mind you need to verbalize it. >> a lot of times i'll say, hey what do you think about this? she says no, i've come to really respect what her vision is. >> and linda cullinson agrees. she says her son's the boss and because of that their relationship works. >> it's higgs company. it's his product. he formulated it and he does know what he's doing. he's very smart or i wouldn't be in business with him. i'm taking a back seat. i work for him and i work cheap. running a business can be challenging. being in a marriage can be

challenging. now think about what it's like to mix the two. joining us now is a married couple who will share their secrets on how to be successful and happy running a business side by side with your spouse. hannah and mark lim are the co-founders of lala land. great to see both of you guys. >> hi. great to see you. thank for having us. >> thank you. >> hannah, you came up with an idea for a great stylish sippy cup that solved some of the problems for your kids. had you guys ever worked together before? mark you were a serial entrepreneur. >> right. >> have you ever been involved in any of those companies, hannah? >> no, never. i've never been involved in any of his work before. >> okay. so tell me the conversation, which is we're going to start a business together. we're married. we have a new baby. there are enough stresses on us. you're in school. you know, what did you talk about in those early days of can we do this together without ending up with a failed business or a divorce? >> i feel -- i'm very proud of our level of communication and

before we started this business i distinctly remember i said, listen you have a great idea. i am dying to take this to market but before we go on any further we need to spend the next month talking every day about how grueling how difficult, how mind blowing how disappointing and up and down this ride is going to be. >> did you guys talk about these tips, having a shared vision as you would be with any co-founder right? and having defined roles. so, again, as you would have with any co-founder. it's different when you're married, right? because when you go home if you are annoyed with each other, something at work, how do you deal with it when you get home? how do you turn it off or do you not? >> well, i think the biggest thing is just -- we communicate really well and i think that's taken practice. it's -- you know, again, we've been dating for a long time so we've sort of nailed that. we're just really direct and up front with one another. >> again, you keep going back to this communication. something else you talk about is

commitment. so the commitment is important. you guys talked about it for a month before. we are both committed to this. what would happen if one of you just sort of said, i'm out, right? i can't do this anymore? i would imagine you're a bit torn for i might not be good for business but it's good for you but i care for you deeply as a spouse. >> the hard thing is being committed in all aspects. we're together at the office. we're trying to be professional. then we come home and on our way home we're trying to be husband and wife and as soon as we get home we're trying to be mom and dad. that word commitment sounds really easy, but it needs to be all day and all night. if one of us starts slipping in that, i mean, it gets rough really fast. >> so has there been anything that was hard? can you give our audience some insight into, okay, this was an issue and this is how we dealt with it? >> so i think the biggest thing i think for us is that we just

really have a shared vision and a common goal. i mean, when we started this we were like we want to build a sustainable brand and that was hugely important to us. so our goal is to get this product in front of millions of moms and you know a lot of times that means identifying opportunities and sort of being in alignment with one another when those opportunities arise. so, for example, you know, we did a recent event on zoo lily.com and we struggled with it. we said, is this really the right move for us? mark and i both agreed we would try it out and we would get our product in front of millions of moms. we even successfully completed our second event. >> that's great. all right. thank you guys so much. it's really -- it's wonderful to see a couple who can work so well together. sometimes it's great and it happens a lot of times. people struggle with it so you guys are an inspiration for people who are struggling. thanks so much. >> thank you, j.j. >> thanks for having us. for more than 100 years the tripper family has run an

amusement company on the boardwalk of ocean city maryland. been a roller coaster ride trying to change through family dynamics and keeping an old school business relevant. i went down to find out the trick to surviving through so many generations and to running an old school business in a modern, high tech world. for brooks and christopher trimper and their aunt stephanie trimper trimper-lewis, taking it over was as much destiny as choice. >> my grandfather called and wanted me to take over. >> it was founded by daniel who visited ocean city and never left. >> he had many things on the property from movie theaters, dance hauls amusements arcades, mini golf. >> today trimper includes arcades, games rides, other

attractions. as the ocean city boardwalk grew over the last century, so did the company. from here all the way to the end this is all trimper? >> yes, all the way to the end, to the water. >> experiment is brooks trimper, the fifth generation. the great, great grandson of the founder. from the perspective of any thrill seeker looking to hop onto the freak out or someone looking to win a big stuffed animal at the horse race, it all looks easy. fun and games really. but to brooks and his family, running this business is anything but. the family drama is just the start. >> there's probably approximately 25 stockholders and, you know, those stockholders have children, spouses so there's quite a few people that have some sort of ownership of this place. >> ownership and different ideas of how things should be run. >> i've got a lot of extended family that have a lot of needs and desires and they want to get return on their investment, which is certainly

understandable, everyone does. and so being natural core family that runs it, i feel that my grandfather left us with that responsibility, not only do we need to provide an amusement park for the people of ocean city, but we need to provide a return for our shareholders. >> this place has history. it's hard to change anything. it took brooks and christopher an entire year to take credit cards. >> there are people stuck in their ways. 100 years it doesn't matter if a policy comes out, this is how we did it for 88 you ers. >> in a business that has so much nostalgia attached to t it's not only the idea of the shareholders they are beholden to, but also the customers who have been coming for generations. >> when we take a ride out to pass the time, would he can no longer get parts for it or it's no longer profitable customers say, where are the little boats? i love those boats. >> brooks says his company is

decidedly old school pretty much by definition, but they're committed to keeping it alive and so are working with their board to make the changes needed to have an old school amusement business survive in this modern world. a clear example is the arcade marty's play land. >> the biggest change is what surprises the kids want. so you know now we've got video games with ipads and itouches and that's what kids want to -- >> i can win an iplaid or itouch? >> there playing games. >> that is different from when i was a kid. >> but while the prizes may change and the rides may get a little scarier to attract the teenagers, the trimpers are dedicated to keeping this amusement park true to the park they all grew up with. if they have it their way, there will be another round of trimpers running this in the next generation. >> the land that your business is on is worth a lot of money. marty's play land the restaurant amusement park, is

it ever tempting to sell it? >> i can't say people have never thought about it. i would never trade out our heritage in this boardwalk. i would wants to be here every day and i wouldn't want it to be somebody else's. >> even for a big payout? >> not even for a big payout. i'm here for the long haul. when we come back. we answer your questions about running a family business, including getting funding and how family dynamics can hurt you when it comes to hiring. american express for travel and entertainment worldwide. just show them this - the american express card. don't leave home without it! and someday, i may even use it on the moon. it's a marvelous thing! oh! haha! so you can replace plane tickets, traveler's cheques, a lost card. really? that worked? american express' timeless safety and security are now available on apple pay. the next evolution of membership is here.

this week's your biz selfie is from the oven nerve spbang. she makes reusable lunch bags. now we want to see your selfie too. send us a selfie of you and your business to your business@msnbc.com or tweet it @msnbc your diz and use #yourbizselfie. it's time to answer some of your business questions so let's get our board of directors in here to talk about running family businesses. we have the president and ceo of the maker of jiffy mixes. and wayne rivers is co-founder

of the family business institute. he's written three books about business families. thank you both for being here. >> thank you. >> you're welcome. >> let's start with the first question. again, all the questions today are about family businesses. the first one is about access to funding. >> as a family-owned business how difficult is it to get funding from general resources such as sba, venture capitalists or crowd funding? >> wayne i'm going to start with you since you've written so much about this. i was talking to a friend of mine who runs a business with her husband and she said that funders were reluctant to fund them because they were husband/wife team. >> yeah it's incredibly hard. if you want to borrow money, it's incredibly hard. venture capital forget it. probably not going to happen. crowd funding, indy go go, kick starter, it's all very sexy. there again, one in a million chance. you go to your big footprint banks, you better be prepared. you better have a written plan

for why you need to borrow the money and how you're going to pay it back. community banks are better. >> that's hard for anyone. does it make it any harder because you are a family-run business or, no, are you treated the same? >> you're treated the same. in fact, community banks will tend to treat family businesses a little bit better because of the deep ties to the community. i don't think it makes it any harder. you need to be prepared. that's the main thing. you have to give lenders something to sink their teeth into t. otherwise you say i'm a swell fella, that doesn't cut it. >> do people look at you any differently? >> i don't think it's any different whether it's a family business or publicly held business. the important thing is that you have to have, as wayne said, a business plan and i'd agree 100% that the smaller banks you have a much better chance of getting funding there than the larger banks. you know, venture capitalists,

you see that from time to time. usually that's more unique ideas and things but keep in mind that 63% of all the gdp is from family-owned businesses so there's -- you know, there's a strong history here. >> and i think when you go in to get funded whether it's from an investor or bank, a lonean or equity, they want to know that you have thought about the things that could happen and that you have a plan for them. so this is just another thing to bring up. look, this is my wife my mother, third generation. we've thought through that. nothing is going to take us by surprise. okay. let's move to our last question. this is from tommy. he owns two nightclubs with his family and he writes in our family business we have multiple voices, age groups and personalities. needles to say, this brings about an array of concepts as to which direction we should develop our business. i want a more scientific method of decision making based on industry trend analysis.

can you advise and/or recommend resources. howie, this is what happens so often in multi-generational businesses. the younger people come, they want to do something one way. the older people have institutional knowledge. unlike a business where it's not family, you know you have all of these other emotions that get caught up in this as well. how do you deal with it? >> right. you've hit the nail on the head. the post world war ii crowd is either dying out or aging out. now you have many more sibling partnerships or cousin consortiums running it if they survive. their decision making generally speaking is horribly broken. you have the family over here which is emotion based, you have the business over here which theoretically is objective and dispassionate. you put the two together and think we'll have some elements of emotion and dispassion forget about it it's all emotion. the family business decision making is horribly broken in our view. it's quite a problem. it threatens the very

survivability of family businesses around the country. >> what do you do then? do you elect an objective board to make decisions? >> howie is the expert on that. that's one thing you can do. a simpler thing you can do without a board is you have to decide how you're going to decide. what can i do unilaterally? where do i need a majority decision? where do we need a super majority? where do we need unanimity. decide how you're going to decide before a big decision comes up. make your decisions ahead of time so you have something to fall back on when you get into the decision making trouble. >> i think one of the things that a family in business or a business family however you want to talk about it, needs to recognize, keep in mind that only 26% of first generation families make it to the second generation, which means 74% fail, and what we're talking about are some of the universal reasons, inability to

communicate effectively. so -- and this is a little bit odd, but families are all about keeping the peace so as a result people don't always tell the truth. therein lies the problem. so one thing that people can do is they can bring in an outsider, someone who's objective, who doesn't have a biological tie to the -- to shareholders and an objective view of the stakeholders in that company as well. all the drama usually takes place with the shareholders, but the stakeholders, they have -- they've got skin in the game, too, so it is beneficial for everybody to make objective decisions, and oftentimes parents can't do that. so bring in somebody from the outside. interview all the players stakeholders and shareholders. come up with a protocol for how you make decisions. in terms of the board you know family members on the board,

board meetings are no different than sunday dinners, and they need to be different. i would encourage family businesses to bring in outsiders. more outsiders than insiders. >> to your point too, both of you guys about deciding how to decide, the best time to do this is when things are calm flight when there's no conflict going on right now. >> right. >> that's right. >> so that everyone is working together to make this decision on how to decide, and then it's very clear when something happens. thank you both so much. it becomes a complicated issue for many people so i really appreciate you coming on and talking to us about it. >> thanks for having me. >> you're welcome. if any of you have a question for our experts we answer questions every week here on the show so please send us an e-mail. you can get great advice. the address is your business@msnbc.com. thank you so much for joining us today. happy mother's day to all of you moms out there. and if anyone wants to learn

more about the show, just head on over to our website. it's openforum.com/yourbusiness. once you get there you'll find all of today's segments plus some web exclusive content with a lot more information to help your business grow. we're also on twitter. it's @msnbcyourbiz. you can find us on facebook. next week we go behind scenes at the recent emerge technology conference in miami to talk to entrepreneurs from around the world who are changing how we live through innovative tech startups. until then i'm j.j. ramburg. and remember, we make your business our business. american express for travel and entertainment worldwide. just show them this - the american express card. don't leave home without it! and someday, i may even use it on the moon. it's a marvelous thing! oh! haha! so you can replace plane tickets, traveler's cheques, a lost card.

really? that worked? american express' timeless safety and security are now available on apple pay. the next evolution of membership is here. happy friday. two really big news stories took two really unexpected turns late in the day today. the first surprising news was the train crash story, which we've been following all week, since that fatal amtrak derailment tuesday night in northeast philadelphia. a surprising development in that story today. the ntsb had planned a briefing late today on their continuing investigation into that derailment. and the ntsb, if you know anything about the federal agencies who are involved in stuff like this, the ntsb is a by-the-book, dot the is, cross the