Mother-Daughter Teams Run Montana Businesses

Billings Gazette:

According to a Business Week report last fall, women in America are starting firms at twice the rate of men - and daughters are now just as likely as sons to follow in the family business.

But working with family members isn’t for everyone.

“You definitely have to know your relationship,” said Kym Liska, 36, who works with her mom, Cheri Tompkins, at Cobblestone Clothing in the Great Northern Town Center. “You know whether you can work with your mom or not. And you have to be able to step back - your mom is always right. You can get pretty cocky as a youngster, but you can’t get mad if they reprimand you.”

As a teenager, Kym helped out on the occasional busy days, but when she left Helena for the University of Montana, she didn’t expect to be back.

But back she came after graduation. She started traveling with her mother to the international buyers’ markets, and now Liska handles all the buying and merchandise for the store.

Tompkins said it wasn’t difficult teaching her daughter the ropes, and she rarely had to push her to focus on work.

“She knew what the work ethic was because she’d seen me do it,” she said. “There was never a problem with that.”

The women said that while they do try to separate work from mother-daughter, they do sometimes talk about the store when they’re home. They’re obviously comfortable with each other, often finishing each other’s sentences and completing thoughts they share.