This month I thought I would tell you a bit about owning and operating a family owned business.

The term "Family Owned" is an odd misnomer. I mean, we all come from a family of some type. And, all small businesses are owned by someone, so aren't all businesses "family owned"? See, in the parlay of the small town midwest - family owned means "my kids work here". For us, it means my kids and my spouse work at our stores.

Since 1998 when I bought Titan Games my family has worked it. My daughters - 10 and 13 at the time, have worked the store since the beginning, whether it was them moving boxes and sweeping the floors - or years later running the registers and doing the buying at the counter - my kids have done it all.

My wife, Colleen, and I have only been together for 4 years, yet she is easily the most important and most profitable employee I have ever had. She does everything. She is our current online sales manager, she is out book-keeper, and she assists in running our Battle Creek retail store.

My oldest daughter currently works both of my stores, doing almost every job available, from listing things online for sale, to ringing up customers, to checking in deliveries. At 24, she is one of the most reliable people I have ever worked with.

My son, Max, who is 15, has worked about 100 conventions, including 5 or 6 Gencons, 4 or 5 Origins, a DragonCon, and other conventions all over the place. He runs sidewalk sales, he does buys, and he runs the register for us.

My middle child, Kattarina, is 21. She has worked more hours than anyone else - because she started the same time as her older sibling, and she didn't move off for college like her older sister did. In the course of her life she has easily done 200 conventions, packed 100,000 orders for mailing, tracked thousands of orders to people, and handled nearly every job we have ever needed done. And, recently - she was hired away from my employ by Troll and Toad (trollandtoad.com).

I think Kattarina thinks she has been called up to the Major League level from a double-A team!

Moving Katie to Barbourville, Kentucky last weekend was hard for me, as her father. Not cause I am angry at Troll and Toad (Far from it, the owner - Jon Huston - is one of my dearest friends in the world - and I have come to really like all of his staff that I know), but more because I miss Katie. She is my baby-girl. She has always been my most reliable helper for just about any project - from tracking sales for the year, to painting the building - Katie brought enthusiasm and a big smile to her work every day.

I hope Katie will enjoy her time in Kentucky - and I hope she finds her new position with Troll and Toad to be a "career opportunity". And, I hope she misses me a little.

Marcus King -
Owner, SRMFIC & Chief Bottlewasher
Titan Games & Music
1504 West Michigan - Kalamazoo, MI 49006
637 Capital Ave SW - Battle Creek, MI 49015