Hiring Family...

We've been getting really busy and also getting an increased number of requests for multiple painters.

I told my older sister that enough was enough and she needed to learn to paint. My younger sister and I have always been artistic and my older sister has always insisted she didn't inherit the gene.

I had her over yesterday to start learning some basics and she did better than even I expected! She still needs to build more confidence, but I saw a glimmer of "Wow! I can do this." in her eyes that was very encouraging.

This weekend I'm volunteering for my daughter's school and she will get her first taste of painting a real crowd. I'm throwing her directly into the fire after only a week of practice so we'll see how that turns out.

What experiences do any of you have with hiring family members? I don't mean children either, more like cousins and siblings of the same age range. Have you run into problems with attitudes about being their boss after the "honeymoon" period is over?

Sorry, only hired my own kids here... but occasionally deal w/ attitude
I have no family here, they're all up north.

Yeah, I expect it from my son sometimes. I'm just nervous about hiring my "big sister." We have a really good relationship, but have never worked together and I'm interested to see how this works out.

She really needs the extra money and I really need the extra help, so hopefully that will stay the focus.

I've hired my younger brother. He's generally been pretty good, but we've had minor snarky tiffs about whether he's allowed to wear sunglasses while twisting outdoors (No! You're under a canopy and they need to see your eyes!) and sometimes I think he forgets it's not appropriate to pretend to backhand me at festivals when we're bored - passersby won't know if it's real or not!

And I know she's not the same age range as me, but when my mom suggested I hire her, it sucked but I had to refuse. I know she would still "mom" me in public, and I can't have that when I'm trying to build up my own business. The last time she was at a festival I did, she stood to the side and kept saying, "Kristal take a drink. Are you hungry? Here, I'll hold your juice for you - just take a sip!" Drove me absolutely crazy.

Kristal, that is so funny. My mom is only here during the summer and for other short bursts of time since she lives out of state, so I already said she could come gig with me since it won't be permanent.

I would love to hire my sisters. I have one who if far better than the painting than I am and I am sure it wouldn't take much to teach her the specific skills for face painting. She doesn't do anything so would be perfect for dragging along when ever I needed her... the only problem is she does nothing and doesn't plan on getting off her naughty word to do anything any time soon.

My other sister is wonderful with kids and isn't that bad at painting either. She would pay attention and be willing to learn, the only problem with her is she is living an hour away most of the year studying.

I'm interested in hearing how it goes working with your sisters, my bigest fear, if I ever did it, would them just deciding last minute that they don't want to do it and them expecting me to be ok with it because I am family.

I am going to start working with the Husband which should be ok... he knows not to mess with me and my facepainting