Running an ice cream store isn’t easy. It isn’t just a matter of throwing a bunch of chairs and tables in the center of a room and hiring a couple employees. “I have a tremendous amount of respect and honor for my peers that work in or run family-owned businesses. It takes a tremendous level of commitment,” Jeff Sommers, owner of Izzy’s ice cream and father of junior Anda Sommers and freshman Ora Hammel said.

Anda Sommers also said, “It makes me feel compassion towards family-run businesses if something goes wrong because I know how much families are invested in their businesses.”

Responsibility comes on many different levels. There’s responsibility for chores, responsibility for grades, for behavior. But the responsibility that comes as a side to owning a restaurant is immense. Those who really care about the outcome of their business put more apparent effort into it. “If I know another kid with a family run business, I can guess that they have a job there and that they learn about businesses. Sometimes you can tell whether their parents work a lot based on their facial expressions,” said Hammel. That is the difference between a perky cashier and a server who’s been working two shifts without rest.

Jeff Sommers’ representation of obvious effort is “hard work and persistence, [and] that it’s really, really important to give a great product and great customer service.” He continued, “And when we do those two things consistently and well, our customers appreciate our efforts and reward us by coming back a second or third time, or maybe in some cases, ten or thirty times.”

Family-owned businesses are called that for a reason. It takes the whole family to make it work—not just the parents. “Most Sundays I go and help with making cake crusts out of graham cracker and Oreo crumbs. I also help with making cupcakes,” Hammel said. “This summer I worked a lot on decorat-ing ice cream cakes, and that was fun. My sister [Anda] worked a lot during the summer in the office, with checks and bills with my mom and stuff. My mom does a lot of organizing and office work.”

This definitely implies a large commitment to time, but, according to Jeff Sommers, Anda Sommers and Ora Hammel, it is time well spent. “I work on a daily basis as many as 12 hours. For instance, today I’ve been working since 7 a.m.,” Jeff Sommers said.

This connects to the same rea-son his daughter Anda said she will “never, ever, ever” go into business when she is older, with her given reason being “way to much stress for me.”

But, for the rewarding element, Jeff Sommers said, “It allows us to innovate and take a leadership role in society. It allows us to mentor young people and model excellence. And we get to have some fun.”

“I have mixed feelings about it. I see a lot of the stressful and negative parts of running a business and obviously that’s hard for our family. On the other hand, I am constantly impressed with how much my parents accomplished,” Anda Sommers said.

“I think it’s really cool. Most families work in an office and have a boss, but my parents are the boss… And I get free ice cream!” Hammel said.

When I was little I would draw signs and my dad would put them up in the store, that was fun,” Anda Sommers recalled.

In terms of how much the business cuts into family time, Hammel remarked that “sometimes they [my parents] talk about work on the weekends, and it doesn’t really bother us, and sometimes it’s cool to hear what’s up.” Hammel added, “Since my parents both have the same job, they like to bring work into the house.”

Similarly, her sister Anda Som-mers said, “Izzy’s is super time consuming. Unlike some jobs where you work for a set time, my parents are constantly working. We will be sitting around the dinner table and my parents will be doing work… it makes life at home very chaotic. It’s always a struggle finding rides and putting meals together.”

Her father’s response about the responsibility with respect to time was: “Yeah, sometimes it’s for the better, and sometimes for the worse,” he said.

How do we learn to succeed? What makes a small business grow and thrive? What separates the 30% of non-failing family owned businesses from the majority? It’s safe to call this one a win for the element of experience. “I get to learn a lot about businesses, and for when I get a real job, I’m currently gaining experience in how to act as an employee towards the boss and hear a lot of these things. I learn from Izzy’s workers’ mistakes,” Hammel said.

Anda Sommers gave an example: “Like if an employee accidentally unplugs a freezer and all the ice cream melts not only do we lose money but my dad has to drop whatever he is doing and go help.” She connects this to “the importance of persistence. My parents constantly face challenges and have to work at overcoming them. They never give up on what’s important to them and I think that’s a good lesson.”