From left to right: Breathless winemaker Penny Gadd-Coster, with sister owners Cynthia Faust, Sharon Cohn and Rebecca Faust
Passion. Bravery. Independence. What a “cocktail” of necessary ingredients to live the lives of the people we showcase in this edition of our magazine!
Welcome to our “Family Run Businesses” edition; bursting with story after story of how small business operators connected by family ties make this North Bay region so colorful, so dynamic.
“Passion” instills and maintains that single-minded, boundless energy to ignore the little things so as to provide clarity to the most important parts of one’s life and, in this case, career. You’ll see passion in full display as you read Javier Hernandez’s story on mother-daughter duo Ana and Marcela Hernandez of the Grove 45 olive oil company. You’ll read about how, years ago, the Hernandez family became committed to the idea of leaving their native Guatemala for bucolic Napa County, eventually chasing their dreams of operating a small business together—and what a beautiful dream! Ana would lean on her culinary training and contacts to launch a retail olive oil business; while Marcela, a business school graduate, would take every skill she learned in school to help move their retail business online. Easy? Not even close. Friends of mine who toil in the wine industry believe their business—one that bombards retailers and consumers alike with an innumerable number of brands, prices and choices—is a cakewalk compared to competing in the olive oil business! But the Hernandez duo thrive because of their passion for Grove 45 and stand among their industry as one of its great independent growers, manufacturers and distributors.
“Bravery”—it’s all I could think of as I read Jean Doppenberg’s expose on the dynamic sister-sister (and sometimes sister-sister-sister!) acts making waves here in the North Bay. The home improvement, hospitality and retail beverage industries are three categories owned and operated and succeeding by sibling business partnerships. Bravery is a critical success factor if one hopes to succeed in the face of danger and unrelenting difficulty. I’m not referring to physical danger, of course, but the sometimes rough emotional and relationship waters that need navigating when siblings work side by side. Failure in this pursuit has destroyed families. It ends conversations, grows animosity, spreads like a contagion across other family lines and makes Thanksgiving dinners, a thing of the past. Yet these hardworking ladies continue to succeed against all odds. You’ll enjoy reading how their businesses have gone from good to great over the last few years.
An “independent” in business, often referred to as an entrepreneur, is that unique creature who believes he or she alone has the answers to the questions faced each day. They take on financial risk and shun corporate life (or just aren’t quite suited for it). Sometimes they don’t follow all the rules—and often believe those rules actually don’t apply to them(!) But what they really crave is independence. Our Janet Perry chronicles a few of these wonderful family businesses in this issue—and how they’re using their entrepreneurship to pass along valuable life lessons to their children. They keep things lean, believe undeniably in their products and work as a family unit to keep expenses down and profits up!
As always, stay in touch with me on LinkedIn or at Lamaturo@northbaybiz.com.
