Lehigh County Archives - Central Penn Business Journal

Family businesses should support one another, here’s how

Lesson #1: Nothing is more important than family.

Lesson #2: A family doesn’t need to be perfect – it just needs to be united.

Therein lies the challenge.

Family businesses and their leaders face tremendous stress. Not only are they dealing with all the challenges of business, but the family business system inherently intertwines business, family and ownership – and it gets messy. Family dynamics bubble over with varied perspectives, generational differences and tenuous relationships. It’s hard to be united when there seems to be a steady flow of drama, conflict and disharmony.

The angst and stress can be overwhelming causing many family business owners to hide it, ignore it or deny it. Whether it is pride, privacy, anxiety or, perhaps, a combination of all three, the issues are often the reasons family owners barricade themselves inside the business and are reluctant to seek outside help.

There is a way out.

There is a way to build a successful, multi-generational family business that doesn’t suck every last ounce of energy out of you. It starts with giving up the notion: “I/we will figure it out (X) on our own.” That mentality leads to a long, arduous journey that often ends up in failure.

The statistics don’t lie. Just 33% of family businesses make it to the second generation, 12% to the third, and a mere 3% to the fourth. Read that again.

One of the ways to beat these odds is to band together with other family businesses in a family business center. This is a community where the other members “get it.” They have walked in your shoes – maybe five years ago, last year or as recently as yesterday. A family business center provides a safe harbor where family businesses gather to learn, support one another, share stories and solve problems. You don’t know what you don’t know, and a family business center is where you can begin to uncover some of the secrets to building a successful family business.

There is an old adage that states, “A rising tide lifts all boats.” A family business center can be that rising tide and lift those businesses and families that come onboard.

The S. Dale High Center for Family Business was founded in 1995 in Lancaster. It is one of the largest and oldest family business centers in the country, supporting more than 120 member companies. To raise the tide for even more family businesses, their leadership team launched a regional presence here in the Lehigh Valley to serve family businesses in Lehigh, Carbon and Northampton counties. And In September, they launched a regional presence in Berks County.

This is a membership-based organization for family-owned and privately held businesses with revenues between $3 million and $100 million, where leaders come together to learn best practices, attend educational events and seminars, and have the option to participate in peer advisory groups.

In these non-compete group settings, leaders meet to tap into each other’s insights and experiences around business, family, ownership and personal matters. There is integrity and confidentiality among the members, allowing family business leaders to help one another with their toughest challenges, identify and pursue their most promising opportunities, and develop solutions for growth.

When you give a voice to that which is hidden deep inside, you take its power away. That’s the first step in moving the family and business forward. That is exactly what this family business center facilitates and why Compass Point is the Founding Corporate Partner here in the Lehigh Valley.

We know first-hand the power of learning together, realizing you are not alone, getting unstuck, building lasting friendships, and finding solutions to the challenges you face in your family business. This is the rising tide that lifts all boats.

If you’re serious about building a successful multi-generational family business and want to be sitting with the best family businesses from this region, you should become part of The High Center for Family Business – Lehigh Valley.

The tide is rising. Will you be rising with it?

Contact Scott Burky at [email protected] to learn more about membership.
For upcoming events visit: www.thehighcenter.com/events

Tom Garrity is managing partner at Compass Point Consulting LLC in Hanover Township, Northampton County. He can be reached at [email protected].

Here’s how to tell if you need a freelancer, or new employee

From withholdings to workers’ compensation, unemployment benefits to paid time off, it’s important to set up your freelance workers as independent contractors.

“Employers want to make sure they are not unknowingly hiring an employee,” said Jeffrey Stewart, an attorney at White and Williams LLP in Lehigh County, who specializes in employment and labor law.

It all comes down to who exercises control, he said.

The IRS has tests to help companies determine if they’re hiring a freelancer or if they’re actually making a direct-hire so problems can be avoided for everyone.

Consider these questions and steps when creating employment agreements to hire a freelance or independent contractor.

What is the need and what tasks do the contract state?
Is the task a distinct project?
Are you [the employer] comfortable with the arrangement?
Can the person doing the work report both profit and loss?
Who provides the equipment for the work to be completed?
Is there training involved, and who is responsible for providing it?
Who is paying the taxes?

Once those questions are answered:

Independent contractors are paid on a tax 1099 form basis.
Document payments made to contractors.
Get a W9 form completed by the freelancer at the beginning of the relationship.

“Some states are starting to regulate the gig economy,” Stewart said.

Watch California.

In September, 2019, California Law AB-5 Worker Status, [Assembly Bill 5] was passed and restricts the number of stories reporters and journalists may sell to a single publication during a 12 month period. After the limit, they must be considered employees of the publications.

Other professions such as doctors, accountants, travel agents and fishermen are exempt from the California “gig worker” law.

“This tells me that a lot of people have a lot of interest in this topic… what is true today may not be true two years from now,” Stewart said.

Projects in Cumberland, Lehigh counties receive more than $7M in state grants, loan

A commercial development in Cumberland County and natural-gas expansion project for a Lehigh County business park were among the recipients of state grant and loan funds announced Wednesday.

The state Department of Community and Economic Development said that nearly $6.3 million was awarded to the Cumberland County Industrial Development Authority through the Business in Our Sites program, which is under the Commonwealth Financing Authority. Another $1 million state grant was approved for the Lehigh Valley Economic Investment Corp.

The Cumberland County funds – a $2.5 million grant and $3.75 million loan – will be used for phase two infrastructure costs tied to the construction of the Oakwood Hills development near Messiah College in Upper Allen Township.

Oakwood Hills is a commercial project that Rider Musser Development is building off U.S. Route 15. The multi-phase project includes a hotel with meeting space, medical office space, a bank and restaurants. A large apartment phase has been under construction with units expected to open this summer.

Oakwood Hills is comprised of three tracts of land totaling more than 100 acres between West Lisburn, Mill and Bumble Bee Hollow roads. Messiah College bought the farmland over the last 20 years. The college’s board of trustees then created the independent for-profit corporation, Rider Musser, to oversee day-to-day operations and decision-making related to the development.

The state funding will help pay for excavating and grading, stormwater management, installation of utilities, water and sewer systems, road paving and landscaping on about 53 acres of the development. That work is expected to cost about $12.9 million.

The Lehigh County grant will help extend natural gas service to the Arcadia West Business Park in Weisenberg Township.

The pipeline expansion work will serve 14 current businesses and 15 residential properties, while also benefiting future hotel and retail development planned for an additional seven acres in the park.

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Here’s how to tell if you need a freelancer, or new employee

Projects in Cumberland, Lehigh counties receive more than $7M in state grants, loan