Ask Elena Katnik’s advice on opening a family-run business, and she’ll caution against it. But not because it hasn’t worked at TEAMride, a popular Sacramento-based spin studio.

Do your eyes roll when you hear the words “mission statement?” You are not alone.

Many of you work at organizations with a mission statement that is now gathering dust on a shelf, framed on a wall or, even worse, carved in stone above your portal. If the following sounds familiar, you’re in trouble:

1. Discuss your values and motivations. Explore your family’s motivations behind your giving to better understand what you want to accomplish. By identifying core values, you’ll be able to direct your support to mirror the causes important to you.

A number of the Capital Region’s most prominent family-owned businesses — like the River Cats — have made social responsibility a core tenet of their companies, employing staff and consultants to help make their programs central to who they are and how they operate.

Call it a disagreement, difference of opinion or power struggle, but family-owned businesses are no less likely to have challenges about how things are run than any other company.

Here are my top three reasons why family businesses need systems:

When an at-will termination is at issue, there are certain steps to take and considerations an employer should evaluate to minimize the risk of later becoming the target of a wrongful termination lawsuit.

On a sunny August afternoon at Selland’s in East Sacramento, I had the pleasure of sharing some French press coffee with Kevin Rahm. You probably know him as Lee McDermott from Desperate Housewives, Ted Chaough on Mad Men or maybe even as your neighbor.

Among the many, many things that the Census Bureau asks in the annual American Community Survey, the 2016 results of which were released last week, is this: How did this person usually get to work last week? 

Pivot. By definition, this means to “turn on or as if on a pivot,” when used as a verb. Synonyms include “rotate” and “turn.” I’ve been experiencing my own pivot recently as I’ve switched gears in my freelance life.

Why is change so difficult? At its core, change is intrinsically personal. While organizations may collectively seek to change, the decision resides at the individual level. As we seek to change behaviors, we need to incorporate three actions to succeed: