NAPLES, Fla — John and Billie Resnick like to think of themselves as a line of defense for small, family-owned businesses.
"Our business is to protect what they've built," John says.
The Resnick Group provides life insurance and other guidance so business owners can be in the best position possible to leave their company to the next generation.
"In order to have a harmonious business and family," Billie says.
We sat down with the Resnicks as part of a series of reports about what Southwest Florida small business owners are doing to keep their businesses going and their employees on the job through the supply chain and staff shortages. The series leads into the Resnick-Wynn Family Business Conference at Florida Gulf Coast University on March 4, which the couple helped organize. Keynote speaker, Steve Forbes, and business leaders like the Resnicks will give advice about how family-owned businesses can thrive in a changing world.
The families they work with are facing challenges with the supply chain shortage right now.
"Just to get the parts," John says, "can take weeks and weeks."
"If you're a contractor and you're building a home, and you're sending somebody a proposal for cost, over a period of time those costs can increase by 40 or 50%."
And staff shortages are just as much of a problem.
"We have a friend who owns a very well-known restaurant in the area and he was always there to greet people and seat them. He's back in the kitchen now. He can't get help to come in," John says.
"When you're looking at the bottom line, the owners we have seen would take a pay cut, rather than let some of those key employees go," Billie says.
That's just part of the special culture that lives in many family-owned businesses, the Resnicks say.
"I will tell you this, family businesses are resilient," John says.
And the Resnicks say those businesses will make it out of this crisis if they stick to their culture.
"They're going to have to be more friendly, more engaging, more helpful."
