Family style: Joining clothing store brings son closer to parents - The Business Review (Albany):

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Yonally, 32, is general manager of , a departmengt store on North Pearl Street in downtownh Albany that traditionally has been known for basic quality clothing people no longer are able to find Yonally decided to join the familyt business when he was a seniorein college. His parents had the opportunity to buy the and once Mark made the decision to join, his parents made the What influenced his decision? "The opportunity to work with my as well as doing something that I thought I would enjo y and be good at really influencexd my decision," he says. There are challengeas and obstacles to working in afamilhy business.
Yonally says the bigges t obstacle is forgetting about the store when there arefamil gatherings. How does he handle the delicat balance between what he wantsd to do in the store and what hisfather wants? "It's not always pretty, but each of us has to sit back and look at the other'sa position, because the right course of actionn is often in the middle. "When I am at work, I work extremelyu hard and if I need to stay to getsomethinv done, then I But once I leave work, it stays there and I try not to even thinkl about it." Yonally is a family man, both at work and at His best stress reliever is being with his son and the family dog.
He says anyone thinkinb of joining the family busineseshould "stay calm and work it out, becausee the rewards are worth it; you will becomwe closer to your family than you ever thoughtt you could." Who are your customers? Our customera don't really fit into one demographic--we try to be a storr that has something for everyone. What is your biggesr competition? Our biggest competitionn is getting people to think of us first beforew all ofthe big-box stores. We are accomplishing this goal. Do you have online competition? While it is a I don't feel that it is a huge one. ...
We are in the processz of developing a Web page for our school uniform business in order to betterr meetour customers' needs. What is your strategy for the store? To offer a good product at a good focus on customer service and make sure that the storee isalways neat, because if you take care of thoswe three things then the rest will fall into place. What changesa have you made?