Family Businesses

The US economy is being restored and there will be opportunities. One of these is the opportunity to create a family business.

 

The best model for a family business includes ownership of the land and the building. You have a lot more operating and financial flexibility when you don’t have to pay rent and you have to maintain your own equipment.

 

Longstreet Cafe in Gainesville Ga is a good example. This is a family-owned buffet. You go through the cafeteria line with a tray, select items and pay at the end of the line.  Then you carry your tray to a table in a large open-seating restaurant. The food and the staff are first rate and the prices as so low it will surprise you.

 

My father-in-law operated his family businesses in South St. Louis County. He bought 2 acres on highway 21 and built a filling station with repair bays, a barber shop, a shoe repair shop and a farm implement sharpening shop. He also built his home on the property.  He rented the repair bays to two brothers. My mother-in-law would pump gas and my father-in-law would cut hair and take in shoes and farm implements to repair in the evenings. He operated this strip mall from 1936 to 1970 and closed and tore down the filling station, but kept barbering. He retired at age 87.

 

Every family can start a family business if they are motivated to do so and equipped to serve customers.  Those who are able to do this and succeed will be glad they did. This embodies our need to determine and control our own destiny. It is true independence.

 

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader