We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kayla Ridder. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kayla below.

Hi Kayla, thanks for joining us today. So, what do you think about family businesses? Would you want your children or other family members to one day join your business?

When I hear Family Business, I have heard alot of things said. My husband works for his uncle and we own the laser engraving business with his uncle as an extension for his other business… (pet cremation so engraving goes hand in hand wiht engraving urns and jewelry) so we are very involved in family business. Starting out we were always told not to get involved in family business because it will strain the relationships within the family. But we have had a different experience. To be able to thrive as a family business you need to be able to communicate, to be able to separate work and personal thing, and take things that are said. You have to understand sometimes mistakes happen and the person to let you know that is going to be a family member, or in my case my husband. Within every business communication is huge. But within a Family Business it is even more important. You dont want things to turn into a he said, she said fight, you dont want the things you say to cause a strain in your relationship so knowing what ways they handle criticism, what ways they handle praise, what ways to bring up issues, and just having a healthy line of communication is huge. The my way no highway mindset can be very damaging. You need to be able to listen to the opinions of the other members involved in the decision making and decide as a family what is best for the business and family. One of the main reasons I want to own a family business is for my kids. I will not push them to join the business, but I want them to learn the business so they can make up their minds. But my kids are very busy and we love having them involved in sports and helping them find things they love and having a business to help support their dreams is part of what I want from our business. Even at a young age running a famiy business can have an effect on your kids. They can see your work ethic, the time and energy it takes to make a business grow, and they can get involved even from a young age to learn different sides of business that will hopefully benefit them in the future. A hard part about family business is that most of it falls on you. So when you arnt there the business can struggle or take a hit, especially in the beginning stages or until you have employees in place that can continue to help your business grow. Having a business (espeically starting out) is like having a newborn baby. It can require work at all hours of the day, going in to fix issues at the drop of a hat, even on vacation you can still have things you need to take care of. so having some boundaries in places to make sure your family is still getting attention outside of the business can be hard but something you should try and accomplish. and those boundaries and what works for your business and family will vary. For us currently this is what that looks like. We have the phone for the pet cremation at night. So I will handle those calls the best I can but my husband will take over when I need him to. The kids know when that phone rings they need to be quiet, but they are kids so sometimes they forget and need to be reminded. I go into work when the kids are at school, but on breaks they will come with me and I try to get them involved in making the projects, my 3 year old could probably run the equipment as good as I can at lazer focused. When we are working at home we try to explain to our kids we are working so they know and can see the work we are putting in, but we try to keep dinner very interactive and keep the communication flowing with limited phone use and they know they have our undivided attention. Having a business cell phone and social media is huge because we can work from the kids events, home, the car, the hospital, really most places we would need to. That can be hard to separate work and family, but also makes it easier to be at places when we need to. Being able to prioritize what needs to happen now and what can wait can help with that some. What can wait to be done when you are at the office, or not around your kids and what needs to be addressed on the spot.

Kayla, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Kayla Ridder and I am a co Owner of Lazer Focused. We got into laser engraving thought my husbands job. My husband is the operations manager of a pet cremation business called Faithful Companion Pet Cremation. They use to take their specialty urns to a local shop that shut down. They were going to start outsourcing more of the work, but his uncle came up with the idea to buy some engravers and helped us with starting Lazer Focused. We can engrave most items in shop and can help families grieving the loss of their pet get what they ordered back faster so they can get closure. But we do so much more that just items for Faithful, We also have been engraving items for weddings ( party favors and wine glasses have been hot items), dirtbike parts, tumblers. We strive to help our customers as quickly and professionally as we can. We want to deliver a product to them that they are proud of showing off and owning. We have also been working with other local businesses to help them get items engraved faster than if they would have to outsource them to a company further away where shipping is involved. Working with local businesses has been a huge asset four our business starting out and we hope to continue to partner with other businesses to continue to better help our community, the families, and other local businesses.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

We believe the best form of advertising is word of mouth and that is how we have received most of our business this far. We have received the most sales from people tagging us in their friends social media post or from person to person conversations between friends and family.

Have you ever had to pivot?

In life you will constantly be faced with circumstances that cause you ti need to pivot: marriage, birth of a child, career change, starting a business, kids activities starting or stopping. Life is always changing and your ability to change with it is going to be a huge factor in your success. As a mom of 4 and a business owner my life has been filled with moments I needed to pivot. For me 2 of the biggest moments of pivot were going from having 1 child to having 2 and steeping down from babysitting kids to focus solely on our business, When we made the transition from 1 kid to 2. MY husband was working full time and not understanding. I was staying at home trying to figure out how to manage a newborn and a very active 17 month old toddler. I was out numbered, stressed and in over my head. But as time went on, I got in a routine that worked for me. I figured out how to use my time to still give my toddler attention while juggling everything that is required with a newborn. When transitioning from babysitting kids full time in my house to leaving my house everyday to go into work and focus on our engraving business. I was struggling with how to figure out how to manage all the household chores I was able to do while working from home and having dinner on the table every night to being gone all day and trying to figure out how to achieve those things with less time at home. In both of those situations it took trial and error, time, communication with my husband and feeling like i was losing my mind. But with time I have been able to pivot through those times where i didnt think I would in the moment. They say time heals all. I think time also helps when pivoting and learning how to juggle the new things life throws at you,

Contact Info:

• Website: lazerfocusedindiana.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lazerfocusedindiana
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lazerfocusedindiana