Even in a tough economy, family-run firms are thriving.

All In The Family

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Even in a tough economy, family-run firms are thriving.

All IN THE fAMIly

By ANN TAylORPHOTOGRAPHy By DENISE RITCHIE

Just because Andrew Harper was Gena Grove’s son didn’t mean a thing when he joined Norris & Company Real Estate, and that’s just the way he wanted it. No stranger to starting at the bottom and working to prove himself, it wasn’t long before Andrew and his mother became partners working in a profession they both love. So does Andrew’s wife Rosy, a designer and their assistant. As Gena enthuses, “How many parents are fortunate enough to have a child come and work with them? Lucky me!”

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family businesses are the oldest form of business organization; they’re also the backbone of the communities they

serve. According to the Small Business Admin-istration, approximately 90 percent of Ameri-can businesses are family-owned but only 30 percent succeed in the second generation and only 15 make it to the third due to lack of care-ful planning and implementation.

While the pitfalls may be many so are the pleasures and pride in seeing the family lega-cy continue and flourish. Our community is blessed to have so many families succeed, doing what they love and doing it well. Here is one of their stories.

Gena Grove and andrew Harpernorris & company real estate

When Andrew Harper joined Norris & Com-pany Real Estate it didn’t matter that he was co-owner Gena Grove’s son. Like all new agents, Andrew had to prove himself. He soon did and it wasn’t long before mother and son became partners.

“There definitely was no preferential treat-ment when I got here,” says Andrew, recalling how it was eight years ago. “I started at the very bottom, didn’t even have a desk. I had to work my way up.”

Work he did, and hard. Real estate was a career change for the University of Miami mechanical engineer graduate, one he and his wife Rosy are happy he decided to make.

“Our now-12-year-old son Alexander was just starting kindergarten and I was looking at schools in the Miami area,” recalls Andrew. “I kept thinking about when I went to Saint Edward’s and growing up in Vero Beach, which is such a wonderful place to raise a family. I fig-ured coming here would be a great opportunity and it has been.”

Gena agrees. “There’s nobody you can be more open with than family and that openness is what makes our partnership work so well,” she says. “Andrew and I have a lot of respect for each other.

“It works if you sit down at the beginning and talk about where you are and what you want to achieve. We cover for each other. Say Andrew and his family need a weekend away or he’s coaching his son’s team – we’re flexible. Making time for family is important to us.”

The idea of working together began to take shape when Andrew acquired his real estate license and became associated with the real estate company Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell headquartered in Coral Gables. “I had wanted to move on to something new,” says Andrew who had been working in the custom audio/theatre industry. “I decided to look at real estate since it had worked out so well for my mother.”

“I knew lifestyle and finding the right school for Alexander were important,” Gena adds, “so I made the decision I wanted a partner and just threw the idea out to him.”

“It was a complete surprise,” Andrew admits. “It’s been a great choice for both of us. We’ve found that most clients tend to gravitate to one of us and it works well because we have the same philosophy.

Gena nods in agreement. “Whether we’re list-ing or selling, I love the interaction with people, and the fact that I’m involved with something that is so very important to them. I’ve seen part-nerships pull apart because of tension, especially where one person thinks he or she is doing more than the other one but because we’re family it doesn’t work that way.

“How many parents are fortunate enough to have a child come and work with them,” says Gena. “It’s turned out just as Andrew and I hoped it would.”`