Key takeaways
- Each generation learns from the painful mistakes of those who came before them.
- The owners are committed to putting their employees and their community first.
Lessons learned
- Avoid giving away equity
- Use debt cautiously
- Learn from other business owners
- Take advice from as many people as possible
- Rapid growth is not always the ideal
A business succession and transition (BST) case study
Storyteller: Buyer
Business location: Metro
Industry: Construction
Business type (storyteller's view): Third-generation family; woman-owned
On this page
- Introduction
- Background: Entering the business
- The first transition: From the first to second generation
- Preparing for transition: From the second to third generation
- Planning for the next generation
- Advice to other small business owners
- Conclusion
Introduction
All Seasons Garage Door is a garage door supplier located in Ramsey, Minnesota. Since 1981, the company has been locally owned and operated by three generations of the Northfield family. Kaarin Birch, current owner and subject of this case study, inherited the business from her parents and operates it with her brother. The company was founded by Wayne Northfield, Kaarin’s grandfather, before it was passed down to her father, who maintained ownership until about 2020. Before Kaarin became CEO, and her brother COO, the two worked in the business for about 20 years. The business currently operates with 28 employees and serves the Twin Cities metropolitan area.
Background: Entering the business
When Kaarin went to college, she had no plans of taking over her parents’ business. None of her siblings did. They all had other interests, and the family garage door business was not really one of them. Instead, Kaarin found her calling in nature, which led her to pursue a degree in natural resources at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Her brother and sister also set out on different paths, pursuing careers in firefighting and elementary education.
When Kaarin returned from college, she was making a living as a waitress, dating her soon-to-be husband and settling in. Then, she got a call from her dad.
“We just need someone to answer the phones in the morning.”
— Kaarin’s father
Kaarin thought about it for a moment. She had never seen herself working at her parents’ business, but she couldn’t think of a reason not to. They needed help, and she wasn’t one to shy away from a job. She took it, and for a long time, she answered phones in the morning and waitressed at night. It was perfect for her. It was stable, flexible, and allowed her to do her “young person thing”. Kaarin never planned for it to be her long-time career, however — she was still young after all. But as the years went by, and Kaarin began to think of the future, things changed.
“And then eventually it was like, okay, I think this might end up being the job that I stick to.”
— Kaarin
Kaarin’s brother found himself on a similar path. He went to school for firefighting, but he ended up coming back home and working as a technician for the family business. Their parents needed the help, so Kaarin and her brother were happy to be there. For years, they became an essential part of the business — Kaarin in the office and her brother out in the field. They weren’t just kids anymore; they were employees with years of learned experience.
The first transition: From the first to second generation
Long before Kaarin and her brother came into the picture, the business was shadowed by the tumultuous transition that came before them. When Kaarin’s parents purchased the business from her grandfather in 1993, the process was fraught with financial strain, interpersonal conflict, and blurred boundaries. Kaarin’s grandfather, who started the business, had a difficult time letting go when it came time to transition. This was the business he founded, operated, and supported his family with for more than 10 years. When his son took over, it was challenging to relinquish the control that he was used to.
Ultimately, he wasn’t able to separate himself from the business and the personal life of his son. He oversaw their budget and even restricted their date nights to ensure they could afford the business. He didn’t feel as though he could trust a new owner to run the business he had worked so hard on, and he didn’t want to see it fail. However, the two were not just business partners — they were also father and son. Eventually, the level of distrust and pressure overwhelmed Kaarin’s parents, and their relationships with Kaarin’s grandfather faltered. According to Kaarin, the emotional toll of the transition nearly broke apart their family. For a long time, Kaarin’s father and grandfather could barely speak to one another, and their relationship would never quite be the same.
“I think you learn a lot from the transition that came before you. Just hearing stories of what other people have done is great information, stories you don’t want to repeat. Knowing the bad stuff. You got to know the bad stuff, so it doesn’t happen again.”
— Kaarin
After enduring the stress of the transition, Kaarin’s parents knew they wanted something better for their children. They knew they couldn’t put them through the same experience. They wanted their children to inherit not only a business but also a fair shot at success.
Preparing for transition: From the second to third generation
Kaarin’s parents didn’t always know they would someday pass the business on to their children. That was not a part of the plan, and really, they could not make it a part of the plan. As much as they would have loved to keep the business in the family, that was not their main concern. Kaarin and her brother hadn’t expressed any interest in taking over the business, and their parents weren’t pressuring them to. Throughout their ownership, they made various plans with various business partners, but all of them fell through. Over time, they realized the best option may be their own children. Not only could they ensure the longevity of the business, but they could pass on something valuable.
“I don’t know if it was always important to keep the business in the family. But once [my parents] realized that it was going to provide a good living and a stable income for their kids, then it became like, hey, we actually have something that we’ve made here that would be worth passing down.”
— Kaarin
When it came time to pass on the business to their children, Kaarin’s parents wanted to do it right. The emotional toll of their previous transition loomed heavy, but it served as a guide for how to move forward differently. They were very close as a family, “emulsified” as Kaarin says, and it was important the business did not jeopardize that. In order to protect their personal relationships, they needed to have structure and a plan. When preparing for transition, Kaarin’s parents attended a number of seminars and conferences for family business succession. They were often the smallest business there, surrounded by huge family corporations that often made them feel out of place. It was intimidating, but Kaarin was ultimately so grateful they did it. Even though their business was small, their engagement in these events gave them the tools and the language to make their transition run smoothly.
“I’m so glad they did it. Even though it didn’t feel like it was necessarily for us, it did help a lot.”
— Kaarin
On top of that, the family had an attorney who set up all of their transition paperwork, and a close relationship with their accountants who walked them through the finances. Additionally, they had family business consultants who guided them through the process from start to finish. Ultimately, having these third parties by their side is what made the transition possible.
Further, the family engaged in legal and financial planning in order to ensure fairness throughout the business transition. When Kaarin and her brother started working full time, they had a business valuation prepared. This allowed them to plan for how the business would be split between the two of them and their sister if their parents were to suddenly pass away. As a part of this plan, they took out an insurance policy for their sister who was not involved in the business, so she could receive her share of the money. However, from that point on, any growth the business experienced would be paid out in shares to Kaarin and her brother. Additionally, they planned to pay a salary to their father for a couple years after the transition to ensure his financial stability. However, this salary was phased out in order to prevent him from relying on it as a retirement-fund mechanism, a common problem in family business transitions.
In addition to financial planning, the family made many decisions regarding the company’s culture that likely led to the transition’s success. In many ways, the social and cultural decisions were some of the most difficult but most important during the entire transition process. When they first took over the business, there was a manager who didn’t respect Kaarin or her brother’s leadership. The manager had trouble adjusting to the transition of leadership and still saw Kaarin and her brother as little kids, even though they were nearly 40 years old and the new owners of the company.
Ultimately, the employee became a very toxic component of the business. Many employees even threatened to leave the company if the manager was not removed. This put Kaarin in a tough position. The manager had been with the company for a long time, and Kaarin was not typically the kind of leader to fire her employees. In fact, she usually avoided it at all costs. But she knew that action needed to be taken for the longevity of her business. Ultimately, Kaarin and her brother decided to let the person go. Kaarin says it was one of the hardest things she’s ever done in her life. To this day, she wishes the situation could have gone a different way, even though she doesn’t know what other way that would have been. It was a very difficult situation, and Kaarin knew it was essential to the success of the transition. In fact, in many ways, she doesn’t know if the transition could have moved forward without it.
Additionally, Kaarin’s father made sure to protect the culture of the business for his children in a way that his father never did for him. The prior transition was tumultuous, primarily because Kaarin’s grandfather was unable to separate himself from the business. Kaarin’s father had lived through that experience and knew how difficult it made it for him to establish his own leadership. Knowing this, Kaarin’s father made the explicit decision to completely step back from the business and let his children take control when it came time to transition. He resisted the urge to intervene, instead placing trust in his children’s decisions. Kaarin believes it was likely this decision and this trust that ensured not only the success of the transition but also the security of the foundation of the entire family’s relationship.
Planning for the next generation
“As we started having kids, it did become more important to hand [ … ] down.”
— Kaarin
With six children between the two of them, Kaarin and her brother have already considered what the next transition might look like. When they were kids, Kaarin’s dad had set rules for them that she would like to carry on to her children. For example, if they wanted to work at the business, it couldn’t be their first job. They had to work somewhere else, specifically in customer service, in order to gain the experience they needed. It was important to her father for his kids to learn skills in the real world, outside of the family business, so they could cultivate the work ethic they needed to succeed. Kaarin appreciated that, and she wants that for her children, too.
As they plan for the future of their business, Kaarin and her brother have a lot more to consider than their own parents did. There are now twice as many children as there were before, which could mean twice as many complications. On top of that, their kids are still young, and it’s impossible to know whether they’ll be in or out when it comes time to transition, or if they’ll want to work at the business at all. But even so, the two have begun planning for what role their children could play in their business someday. They have discussed plans to start them in small roles at the business to earn some money if they want to. However, those roles will be regulated, and somebody would have to sign off. It’s important to Kaarin that nobody is getting anything for free.
Kaarin knows it is a possibility that her kids won’t want to take over the business someday, and she’s prepared for that. As much as she would love them to, her feelings won’t be hurt if they decide to go their own way. If her kids are not ready to take on that role, she would love to see the business go to one of her employees. As a small family business, Kaarin’s employees are very important to her. Most of them have worked there for as long as she has, and the turnover is almost none. Her and her brother have worked hard to maintain a culture that makes people want to stay. They have a history of hiring their employees’ family members and friends, creating a community of people who not only work together but also trust one another. One of Kaarin’s favorite parts of owning a business is that she can “make horrible financial decisions,” as she calls it, meaning she can pay her employees a lot of money. It’s important to her that her employees are paid good salaries, have good jobs, and be able to do what they want with their families. Being able to provide for them has always been a point of pride for Kaarin, and being able to pass the business on to them someday would be an extension of that.
“Keeping the jobs for the people here is really important. The business has proven itself that because the people who work here are so devoted to the business, financial success just comes along with that.”
— Kaarin
Ultimately, there is only one outcome that Kaarin dreads seeing for her business: private equity. Kaarin and her brother came to own the business at a time when a lot of their competitors were bought up by big businesses, and they knew that is not the future they wanted for their own company. They watched as one business bought up all the garage door companies in the area, and then they watched the offers come in for their own company. But Kaarin and her brother turned them all down. She never wanted to go that route. For her, money was never the prize — her employees were. She knows what would happen to her business and her employees if she sold the company to private equity. She knows they wouldn’t care about her employees the way she did. If she were to sell the business, her employees wouldn’t have jobs anymore. Worse, they would be replaced by people who didn’t know the business or the industry, and all the knowledge they held would be lost from the business.
“We have some competitors that are pillars in the industry that we need to have [ … ] or the knowledge will be lost because the companies are being bought out by people who just really don’t know what they’re doing.”
— Kaarin
For Kaarin, this job and this business is about way more than just money. What would she even do without the business? Would she have to start another business? Would she have to go work for someone else? She couldn’t imagine a future that did not involve the company her family had spent generations maintaining and growing.
“We have so many competitors that [ … ] have been bought out by larger companies. The amount of money that they are charging [customers] is crazy. And I think we need some normal independently owned businesses to keep the prices low and fair.”
— Kaarin
Advice to other small business owners
With more than 20 years of lived experience and exposure to two family business transitions, Kaarin has a lot of advice to offer. It straddles the financial and cultural realms, both crucial aspects to navigating family business transitions effectively.
Avoid giving away equity
As much as she values her employees, Kaarin cautions against giving away equity in the business, as she believes it can create too many complications. Instead, Kaarin believes that paying employees well and maintaining a healthy workplace culture are the most powerful retention tools available.
Use debt cautiously
Kaarin stresses the risk brought on by overleveraging debt, noting that it can destabilize both the business and family relationships during a transition.
Learn from other business owners
Some of the most crucial decisions made during the company’s transition were guided by both the mistakes and the successes of the transition before them. Kaarin has learned the importance of knowing what other business owners are doing and have done successfully, so that she is able to incorporate these experiences into her own business.
Take advice from as many people as possible
While receiving guidance from professionals with credentials is helpful and even necessary, surrounding yourself with people who understand the business and family dynamics can be an be just as crucial to the transition’s success. Seek advice from professionals in the field but incorporate your friends and family into your decision making as well.
Rapid growth is not always the ideal
Through three generations of ownership, All Seasons Garage Door has experienced only modest growth. However, Kaarin has learned that slow, steady expansion can be equally sustainable and successful.
“I think it would be really helpful to know what other people are doing. Because you do feel alone. [...] To know if we’re doing something different, then we know that we’re doing it differently. [...] Just to have an idea where you stand.”
— Kaarin
Conclusion
The successful transition of All Seasons Garage Door from the second to third generation illustrates that successful family business succession is as much a cultural and relational process as it is a financial or legal one. Further, the relationships between family members and employees were deeply influential to the financial and legal decisions made throughout the process.
By learning from the painful mistakes of the prior transition, Kaarin’s parents approached succession with intentionality, structure, and a willingness to seek outside expertise, ensuring both fairness and clarity for their children. Equally important, the transition succeeded because of conscious decisions about leadership, trust, and organizational culture.
Looking ahead, Kaarin’s commitment to employee well-being, community stability, and avoidance of private equity reflects a broader vision of business ownership grounded in stewardship rather than profit maximization. Together, these choices position All Seasons Garage Door not only for long-term continuity, but as a model for how small, family-owned businesses can navigate succession in a way that preserves relationships, business knowledge, and local economic resilience.
Reviewed in 2026