5 tips for incorporating the next generation into your business from people doing the work

For the Robinson family, entrepreneurship is all about roots and legacy. Robinson Farms CEO Drucella Perkins, her sister — Robinson Farms CFO Chrystal Thierry — and their 10 siblings’ grandfather purchased land as farmers in Southeast Missouri two generations ago. Today, they are working to honor their family’s history of “refined country living” through their resort, Robinson Farms NxtGen, located outside of Cape Girardeau. It’s a generational farm, being built from the past in order to give to the future.

The family bought the property in 2021 and opened the first cottage in 2022. Since then, they have renovated the grounds, the barn — which they call the 806 Men’s Lounge — and the boutique hotel, which they call The Elle. Seven of the 12 siblings are involved in the project, as well as several of their children. In addition to welcoming others with the same hospitality the Robinsons grew up with, the property serves as a meeting place and connection point for the siblings and their families who now live throughout the U.S.

Thierry says involving the next generation includes giving them the space to discover what they enjoy and how those skills fit into running the business.

“We go searching for all the things only to find out all the things we went in search for, we already had. It was already in us,” Thierry said. “But you gain all of that wisdom, all of that knowledge, through the discovery process, so when you come back, you’re more enlightened, and you have an appreciation for it.”

Drucella Perkins says it’s also important to involve the next generation in labor as well as discussions for the family business while they’re growing up; her parents did this for her and her siblings, and she did it for her children, too.

Practically, the siblings pair members of the next generation with members of their generation to mentor them, giving the next generation responsibility within the business and helping them think through their successes and failures.

Drucella Perkins’ daughter Dreanna Perkins, operations director of Robinson Farms, says her mom is a visionary, but her unique role is to understand the practical steps to bring the vision to reality. And when working with the generation above her, she says understanding what motivates each person is key. While some people get excited about an idea just by hearing it, others need to see it in action before they feel comfortable getting on board. She says it’s important to honor the different ways people communicate and experience the world and to show people who need visible proof that ideas are viable by carrying them out.

While the Robinson family focuses on the hospitality aspects of owning a farm, Cameron Beggs and his wife Cathy Beggs focus on food production in their family business. Cameron Beggs grew up on his parent’s farm and says he spent time working in his family’s watermelon fields from the time he was 8 years old. He feels fortunate to have worked alongside his grandfather, dad, uncle and older brother in their watermelon and row crop business throughout his childhood, where he learned his passion was growing crops people could directly consume. In 1987, he founded his own farm near Benton, Missouri, and throughout the years, has grown strawberries, sweet corn, tomatoes, peaches, pumpkins and “pretty much anything you see at a farmer’s market.”

Growing up on the farm, Cameron Beggs says he learned leadership, teamwork and how to work with others to solve problems. This has served him well as he and Cathy have raised their children on the farm. Now their 11 grandchildren, who range in age from less than a year old to 24 years old, help on the farm at different times, too.

Cameron Beggs says the main challenge of raising a family while operating a farming business is time management. His family’s solution as his children were growing up included spending time together on the farm while working.

“If you don’t spend time with your family on the farm, there’s not a lot of time to spend with them, because this is a job that is sometimes 24/7, seven days a week, 30 days in a month,” Cameron Beggs said. “The farm tells me what to do. I don’t tell the farm what to do. … I can plant the crops, I can say, ‘OK, I’m going to plant them on this date,’ but from there on, the crop tells me.”

Cameron Beggs says the benefits, though, include getting to see his children grow and develop as they learn on the farm, as well as instilling them with perseverance. It’s a demanding and rewarding lifestyle, he says.

Entrepreneurs Vanessa and John Eric Klein work in the restaurant industry, and they agree. The Kleins own 10 businesses regionally: On Valentine’s Day in 2015, they opened 36 Restaurant & Bar, and in 2018, they got involved with ownership of Seis Amigos and BG’s Deli. In 2019, they founded Klein Hospitality Management Group, a small business to help with the administration aspects of their restaurants. In 2022, they bought four Papa John’s franchises — one each in Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Sikeston and Poplar Bluff, Missouri — and are currently working on opening an additional Papa John’s location in the Mount Auburn Center in Cape Girardeau. In 2023, they purchased Benchmark Printing in Jackson, and in 2024, they opened Seis Express with their business partner Mario Mendoza.

With two children under the age of 4, they are learning how to balance being business owners and having a growing family. They say having a community of family members, as well as staff members and nannies who become like family, is key, as well as sharing responsibilities for family and business tasks with each other.

Recognizing there is “no such thing as true balance when you’re trying to accelerate your career and have a family,” John Eric Klein says the day-to-day may not always be balanced, so it’s important to balance long-term over the year. An example of this, he said, is to work hard at your business, so you can take a longer vacation with your family.

“It’s hard work,” Vanessa Klein said. “It’s all about your attitude and how you can handle things.”

John Eric Klein encourages entrepreneurs who want to have a family to go for it and to not be afraid of the work it will require. It’s important, he says, to choose a positive mindset when the business throws curveballs and to compartmentalize to ensure the family isn’t treated negatively because of work.

The benefits as business owners raising a family, the Kleins say, include having a flexible schedule and being able to bring their children to work with them.

As these business owners attest to, growing a business while growing your family and then bringing the next generation into your family’s business is not always easy, but with time and intention, it can build something that lasts. Here, they share tips they’ve learned from their own experiences with work/family life balance and joining forces with the next generation to grow their business into the future.

1. Hire good people.

If you can trust the people at your workplace to do what they need to do to help your business run smoothly, it frees time for you to be able to spend with your family.

“I would stress the importance of training just really good people around you in your businesses,” John Eric Klein said. “Give them the support they need, pay them what is appropriate for everything, and make sure you make them a part of your life, too. And if you do that, then you’re going to find that you can [balance your family and business life].”

2. Recognize individuality and adjust your management style based on what you’re seeing.

In the same way Cameron Beggs sees different issues and opportunities with the crops he plants and their surrounding conditions, he says each child and grandchild, as they are incorporated into the business, have different talents and needs. The parent-business owner can recognize this and foster conditions that will help the next generation succeed.

“Every kid is different, and every crop is different,” Cameron Beggs said. “You can’t treat every child the same, because all of them have just a little bit different personality or different wants or needs.”

3 Strive for a balance between the first generation and the next generation.

It’s important to remember the gap between your generation and your parents’ generation and to acknowledge that the gap also exists between your generation and your child’s generation. Ensure both generations enter into difficult conversations together in which the younger generation listens to the experiential wisdom the older generation brings to the business, and the older generation hears the new ideas the younger generation brings. Merging these ways of experiencing the world will help ground the business in the present.

“Just because they’re younger doesn’t mean they’re less valued,” Thierry said. “They have a different skill set; things are always shifting and changing. So, we have to be nimble and agile to lean into the technology or whatever that new thing is, so we can reach the audience that we’re targeting.”

4. Don’t rush to make things happen.

See your business as part of a continuing lineage and legacy. Remember what you currently have is the result of the generations who came before you, and what you’re building in the present time is for the generations coming after you. This will put decisions into perspective and help you to make choices that will benefit the business in the long run.

“Time is on their side,” Drucella Perkins said of the next generation. “[The business] can only continue to grow and to get bigger and to get better. But that will take time. So, we’re not trying to put something out into the world that’s going to go up one day and go down the next day. We really want to have something that’s planted firmly.”

5. Work hard.

The next generation coming into the business must pull their weight and rise to the challenge of continuing to build their family’s legacy through business. To do this, they should remember it will take work and effort.

“The last three years have been a labor of love. I’ve never felt like I've worked harder,” Dreanna Perkins said. “We’re going to have to do the work. The next generation of us, that’s the only way that this will continue — we have to decide that we’re going to put in work.”