Doing business with dad

These five father-child teams say starting a small business together was a leap of faith, but they all agree that the secret to their success is trust.

Jim and Tom Dozios
Jim and Tom Dozios
Business: Advertising

Jim Dozois spent nearly three decades working in advertising and media sales before buying a franchise from Adventures in Advertising in Michigan.

"I wanted to go into business with my son, Tom, who had recently graduated from Indiana University, to provide an opportunity to work for himself," said Jim. "If you can operate a successful business, it can provide financial rewards and career security that is hard to find in the corporate world today."

"I thought it was a great opportunity at the time," Tom said, "to start a business with my dad, someone I trust, with his background." And worst case scenario, "at least I would get some good experience."

At the outset, Tom said he learned a lot from watching how his dad approached the business, from meeting with clients to setting goals, "it was all great for me." And once the business got off the ground, Tom branched off and opened another location in Chicago.

Now, he says, "we're in contact everyday, maybe even a couple of times a day because he might have a question for me or I might have a question for him."

"We run our businesses parallel to each other."

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Bob and Rean Stucker

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Jim and Tom Dozios

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.