How do you juggle the delicate balance of family and business dynamics?

The challenges faced by family businesses inspired a group of College of Business faculty members in the Department of Management to form a Family Business Initiative that helps entrepreneurial students, alumni and community members who want to succeed in family-owned businesses.

For the first time this fall, UNT will offer a family business class. Applying knowledge in conflict resolution and organizational behavior, UNT's experts will help students navigate the terrain of family business. Thanks to a UNT community engagement grant, students will study a family business and offer solutions. Candy Haven in Denton will be the first business case to be studied in the class, taught by senior lecturer Mike Sexton.

"We have entrepreneurship classes that address similar issues, but this will be the first that focuses purely on family business," says Danielle Cooper, assistant professor of management and a principal investigator of the grant. "In an entrepreneurship class, you learn about starting a business and how to maintain cash flow, but you don't talk about the interpersonal dynamics of a family firm."

The grant also will help fund a forum for community members and students with family business ties.

And the Family Business Committee plans to form a family business club to focus on issues such as handling family dynamics and reaching business goals.