Pressure Wash News Winter issue

IT’S A
FAMILY
AFFAIR
their friends don’t do anything with
their parents at their ages now. But
we vacation together, and even when
we’re at home, we spend a lot of time
together. It’s actually kept us a much
tighter unit. It’s much better than
when I was still working in the corporate
world where I was on the west
coast all the time.”
MARIE REINSEL
“This was a second career for me.
We started this business in 2012. It is
a trick to work together. I was a CFO
in my previous job. I was in charge all
the time. So, working with my husband
was hard. I think the first time
he told me to stop talking to him like
he was one of my employees, that was
eye-opening.
“The first couple years were rough.
He comes in my lanes or sandboxes.
He tends to come in my lane a lot! I’m
not out in the field, so I’m seldom in his
lane. I do all the finance, so he comes in
my lane all the time. I used to take way
more offense to it because I know my
job and I know how to do my job and
previously I wasn’t questioned so much,
particularly on a day-to-day basis. So,
it’s taken a lot for me to learn how to
have those conversations.
“I know some families who run small
businesses have issues. They fight all the
time and can’t have a conversation. To
deal with that, we kind of state upfront
that we are either in ‘husband-wife
mode’ or in ‘business mode.’ Because we
find that when you’re at the dinner table
or when you’re doing laundry or when
Marie and Andy Reinsel, owners A2Z Pressure Washing in Bellevue, OH
you’re lying in bed and one of us brings and my mother will tell you that they
up the business, that tends to clash. He’s never fought. They kept it in. As husband
like ‘are you kidding me?’ Instead, get and wife, we fight a little differently than
your kids out of the house, get in business we fight as business partners. If he and I
mode, and have a scheduled meeting, an disagree on business, you can’t take that
employee meeting, to talk business. home, that’s just a business decision. I’m
“I can transition very quickly from head of finance, he’s the head of sales
husband-wife mode to business mode. and running the business, and you’ve got
My husband doesn’t transition as fast as to agree to disagree sometimes. But that’s
I do. If he’s in husband mode and I bring got to stay in the ‘nine-to-five.’ Not that
up business, the conversation generally anyone in the pressure wash business is
doesn’t go very well. And if he’s in business
mode and I’m in wife mode, same “You can be a family-owned business;
working nine-to-five.
kind of butting heads. But if I say ‘let’s but you cannot run like a family-owned
sit down, I’ve got an hour’s worth of stuff business. You have to run like a corporate
business. You can have that as your
we need to talk about,’ and we schedule
it, we seldom fight when we’re both in advertising hook and certainly people
business mode.
like working with the owner’s son, etc.;
“I remember before Andy and I got but you damn well better be run like a
married, my grandmother told me ‘learn corporate business because when you’re
how to fight.’ My parents got divorced running big accounts, clients expect you
to act like it.
“In a family business, you have to be
really honest too. I’ve seen a couple businesses
where the son is the operations
guy and he’s just not very good at it. If
you were in another business, you would
fire your son. It’s hard if you are the
owner or partners because you have to
be honest with yourself. If your kid is not
the right fit then you’ve got to re-assess
and hire for the right fit for the business
-- not because it’s your son.
“That’s also when you started losing
good employees. When your employees
are telling you that your son is an idiot
and you’re still keeping your son there,
well, that’s when you need to take a step
back and make sure you get the right
person in that job.”
continued ...
28 | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | VOL. 2, NO. 1 | WINTER 2020