Three generations, countless cups of tea, and more lessons than any business degree could ever offer.
Family businesses are peculiar things: part kitchen table, part boardroom, sustained by love, luck, and a faint sense of disbelief that it all still works. Ours began long before Brix + Bailey existed, in the hands of the generation before us. Clever, independent people who believed that design and determination could build a life.
We inherited their ambition, their sketchbooks, and perhaps their stubbornness. Working with family has proved the most rewarding and most humbling experience imaginable, a long apprenticeship in diplomacy, patience, and the delicate art of separating Sunday roast from quarterly review.
Lesson one: know when to change hats
In a family business, roles blur easily. One moment you are discussing budgets, the next you are being reminded you forgot your mother's birthday. We learned the importance of boundaries, and that affection must not drown accountability. Disagree, debate, apologise, repeat. Tea helps.
Lesson two: respect the past without living in it
Legacy is inspiring but heavy. We treasure the craft and principles passed down to us, and we have had to reinvent them for a faster, noisier world. The trick is not to preserve the past in amber but to let it evolve gracefully. Translate rather than imitate.
Lesson three: markets are unsentimental
The marketplace does not care who you are. It cares what you offer. We have learned to separate emotion from decision-making. Love the people fiercely, let go of the products bravely, and never mistake nostalgia for strategy.
Lesson four: failure is a surprisingly good teacher
Every misstep has been oddly educational. Failure, treated kindly, has a sense of humour. It points out what you missed and sends you back to the drawing board with better pencils. We try to listen.
Still learning
Three generations later we are still working out how to stay independent without becoming insular, and how to grow without losing warmth. The lessons never stop. They simply get better lit.
If you have ever worked with family, you will know the joy and the chaos. If you have not, perhaps this is a small reminder that every enterprise, however polished, is powered by people doing their best, and occasionally their worst, together.
We have told our story. We are curious about yours. If you have worked with family, or tried and wisely decided not to, what did it teach you? Tell us below. We promise to read every word, and quite possibly to quote you over dinner.
Family-owned brands are one of the ways you can browse the marketplace. Shop by purpose, or have a browse through every brand we carry.
