100: Talking Family Business With Jerel And Heather Tomasello

<p>On this episode of the Franchise Secrets podcast, Erik is joined by Heather and Jerel Tomasello to talk about working with family in business. As a husband and wife pair, Heather and Jerel have reached big heights in the world of franchising. They’ve also had to deal with the difficulties being business partners brings and how that impacts their relationship.</p> <h2>Managing the balance of family and business is key in a family business</h2> <p>Jerel and Heather discuss how they got started in franchising, why they choose the franchising model despite having business experience, and how they’ve managed to balance family and business.</p> <h3>Listen to Erik, Jerel, and Heather talk about family business:</h3> <p><strong>Introduction</strong></p> <p><strong>Getting started (4:39)</strong></p> <p>Heather and Jerel discuss their background and how they decided to start a business together.</p> <p><strong>Working together (4:31)</strong></p> <p>Heather and Jerel explain how they figured out each others’ strengths and weaknesses in business and how they best worked together as a pair.</p> <p><strong>Spouse, not employee (9:00)</strong></p> <p>Jerel and Heather share the difficulties of working together as business partners and spouses, including the times when the two don’t mesh well together. They talk about how they’ve been able to work out those bumps and Erik shares his own experiences.</p> <p><strong>What businesses are they in now (15:38)</strong></p> <p>Jerel and Heather talk about what they’re currently doing in business.</p> <p><strong>Going from corporate to entrepreneurship (19:17)</strong></p> <p>Jerel went from working for a franchisor back into entrepreneurship. He tells Erik how working on both sides has allowed him to know what he wants.</p> <p><strong>Balancing business and family (22:14)</strong></p> <p>Heather and Jerel have worked hard to balance their business side with their family and how much to bring their children into the mix.</p> <p><strong>Pushing children into business (28:25)</strong>