Family matters: Local families share entrepreneurial experiences

by Maria Hoover

Inside Business Editor

mhoover@sbj.net

Earlier this year, we unveiled our "Family Matters" logo as a symbol of news coverage about families or issues that affect them. Since that time, we've discussed ideas for family news coverage. In southwest Missouri, opportunities abound. Many of our local businesses are family-owned. There are so many ways we could explore the families-in-business theme, and there's no doubt that we'll be coming back to it in future issues.

But for this issue, we've found some local families whose members own and operate multiple businesses that, in some cases, compete with each other.

What started out as a single story is presented as three on the pages that follow. You will meet the Williams family, whose members' endeavors reach into construction, dining, travel and gifts. There's also the Paul family. Mom Jane Paul decorates homes, and her husband, son and daughter build them. The Peck family owns and operates two businesses out of the same building, sharing resources, personnel and equipment.

It's interesting to see how the choices of one family member affect the decisions made by others to become entrepreneurs. The three families we feature aren't alone, and I'm sure that in the weeks to come, my phone will ring with calls from other business owners whose family members also are entrepreneurs.

And that's just fine SBJ would like to tell their stories, too.

In the meantime, we think you'll enjoy learning about the Williams, Paul and Peck families. I know we did.