P&L: Priorities & Lifestyle Episode 63

P&L: Priorities & Lifestyle Episode 63 - Taking Over The Family Business with Eric Wessinger

Eric Wessinger successfully managed a family business transition at Richards Supply over the course of around 10 years. His journey with the company began as a summer job, involving various roles while growing up, before he pursued a different career path for about a decade. Returning to Richards Supply with a newfound perspective and experience, Eric now shoulders the responsibility of maintaining the family legacy and ensuring its success.

When Eric returned to Richards with the intention of leading it, there was obviously a bit of employee resistance to the idea of the owner’s son taking over. To address this, Eric adopted a humble and honest approach, working with existing employees to make sure that the company’s culture and processes remained. And with two high school-aged children, Eric is pretty open to the possibility of involving them in the third generation of the family business.

Contact Eric at https://www.richardssupply.com/

“It's not black and white; leadership is not ‘yes’ and ‘no’. It's not ‘on’ and ‘off’. Every person needs different things from you as a leader." - Eric Wessinger

This week on Priorities Lifestyle:

The Challenges Of Transitioning Business Within The Family
Navigating Employee Pushback During A Leadership Transition
The Importance Of A Five-to-Ten Year Plan For Transition
Why Outside Experience Was Crucial To A Successful Family Business Transition
Training The Next Generation To Take Over
Surviving As A Supply Company During COVID

Our Favorite Quotes:

"It wasn't, ‘The owner’s son is coming in, and he's going to teach us all about how it works.’ This was, ‘Hey, the owner’s son is coming to join the company. We're all in this together. This is new for all of us. Let's learn this together.’" - Eric Wessinger

“You know, it's two different things. You have ownership, that's one thing, and you have leadership, that's another. I think that we forget that a lot of the time, especially when we're doing transitions within generations. You can move those around and pull the levers differently.” - Rob Schulz
"I know of family members that aren't involved in their family business and still want to be involved, still want to kind of have their say even though they have nothing to do with the business. I've been really blessed and lucky that I don't have that situation. I'm fully autonomous to run Richards the way I want, and my family allows me that freedom.” - Eric Wessinger

About Rob Schulz and P&L Priorities & Lifestyle Podcast

The P&L: Priorities & Lifestyle Podcast is a show for business owners. In each episode, host and financial planner Rob Schulz sits down with business owners and the professionals that serve them to talk about business building, life, money — and the all-important transition out of the business, which inevitably happens to everyone who has ever founded a company.