For Us This Is Real Life!

By Jennifer McGuiggan, Communications Coordinator

Each March, in honor of Women's History Month, e-magnify explores the business contributions of women past and present. This year, we launch our month-long celebration with a look into a microcosm of the world of women entrepreneurs. McGinnis Sisters Special Food Stores, with locations in Monroeville and Brentwood, PA, recently announced the addition of a third generation to their business. I met with the three sisters and one of their daughters to trace the path of entrepreneurship from their father's produce stand to their current day success as nationally known specialty food stores with 150 employees.

It was Elwood McGinnis who opened McGinnis Country Deli and Farm Market on Christmas Eve 1946, but it was his wife, Rosella, who came from an entrepreneurial background. "My dad knew nothing about business," says daughter Sharon McGinnis Young, Vice President McGinnis Sisters. "My mother was more the business person because her parents had a restaurant. She really had to teach him a lot about business and finances and making things happen."

While Elwood was preparing to open his store, Rosella was having their third baby. "Every one of our defining landmarks has a child attached to it," says Noreen McGinnis Campbell, Vice President of Finance. According to the sisters, their father dropped their mother at the door of the hospital, and then went back to the store to finish readying it for its holiday debut. They tell me this peculiar detail in calm voices, as if it were no big deal. And to them, it's not; this is business as usual, all puns intended.

McGinnis Sisters truly is a business built on the foundation of family. Living just two blocks from the family store meant that nobody was ever "safe" from being called on to help. In a time before licensed kitchens were required by law, Elwood would often call down to the house and tell Rosella that he needed 25 pounds of potato or macaroni salad. So, while taking care of a brood of children (they had 8 in all), she would whip up a batch and carry it to the store.

Of course, all these children equated to a ready-made workforce. Noreen recalls hiding in the woods to avoid work duty. "Who wants to make kielbasa - eeeh, that's fun at nine!" she says with a smile.

Sharon agrees: "When you're in high school, you never want to come up and peel the garlic on a Friday night."

Despite (or perhaps because of) all of this garlic peeling and sausage making from such an early age, the sisters took over the business in 1981. What started as a mom-and-pop corner store has evolved into two specialty food stores with everything from organic produce to an extensive seafood department. "Our customers have really taught us a lot, because we were meat and potatoes, regular people," Sharon says. And while the store boasts wonderful specialty items, it serves several different client bases, including folks who have been buying the same type of ham and potato salad for the past 40 years, she says.

While the sisters were deeply involved with the family business throughout their childhoods, they stress that their father never stood in the way of their ambitions. Somewhat ironically, none of the sisters studied business. Sharon glibly admits, "I'm an art major with no talent. I'm really good in museums. I love it… then I found out that you can't make a living doing that."

Noreen laughs about her background in the field of communication, saying, "I was going to go to New York and replace Connie Chung."

Bonnie McGinnis Vello, the eldest of the sisters and President of McGinnis Sisters, was a teacher before returning to the store. Like her sisters, she had no doubts about her future career once she came back to the family business.

Sharon remembers her brothers and sisters in playpens behind the counter at their father's store. The sisters continued the tradition of blending family and business. "We have all taken our kids to work," she says. Elwood even called her in the recovery room after she had a baby to ask her business-related questions. "There was never any thought of, 'You're not coming back to work,'" she says. "You just bring the baby with you." When the second generation of McGinnis women began having too many children to handle on their own, they hired a caregiver to watch them in their office building. All told, the three sisters have ten children.

The oldest of these ten is Jennifer Daurora, who joined McGinnis Sisters in February 2004. As the third generation, she offers a unique perspective on the family business. "I [am] in awe of it when I think about it," she says. Like her mother Bonnie and her two aunts, she remembers working in the store as a child, standing on crates to reach the counter. "I remember always being here," she says. "It always seemed special, but it seemed normal because that's what we grew up in. But then to come back after being out in the world …it's pretty amazing to see that it started as a produce stand. And now where it is today - it kind of makes you take a step back."

While Jennifer is the first of the sisters' children to join the family business in an official capacity, the nine others put in their fair share of part-time and summer work. Other family members also work in the business, including Elwood's son Pat and his wife Mary, Elwood's daughter Lynn, and Noreen's mother-in-law and father-in-law.

The Dynamics of Family Business
So what is it like to work so closely with your family? Sharon says that it works out well for them because they share the same values and goals. "We really work well together. We want each other to do well. We don't have a competitive problem between us, and that has really helped us to be such a close-knit family." She says that her husband jokes about the sisters having one mind between the three of them, and she agrees: "I know what Bonnie wants done before she even has to tell me."

Noreen advises family businesses to take advantage of the many resources now available to help them develop as a team. When the McGinnis sisters attend classes on this subject, they are pleased to discover that they're already on the right path, doing what the experts suggest.

Perhaps being immersed in the business from such a young age has helped. "We've been doing this since we were eight," says Noreen. "You could reach the cash registers standing on a pop case and you were on the schedule." Always going back to the theme of family, she compares growing a family business to nurturing a child.

Bonnie agrees: "A family business really becomes part of your identity, your everyday." Of course, it helps that they love each other and the food business, and are savvy business owners. These attributes have paid off. Just four years after assuming ownership of McGinnis Sisters, they received the Entrepreneur of the Year award from Ernst & Young. Their other business awards include Carlow College's Women of Spirit Award and University of Pittsburgh Katz Graduate School of Business Family Enterprise Center's Family Business of the Year Award. They have also been named a finalist for the Pittsburgh Athena Award. Additionally, McGinnis Sisters has won a host of food-related awards and been featured in national food magazines.

The Second Generation of Women
When Elwood passed the torch to the next generation in 1981, he encouraged his daughters to change the name of the store to McGinnis Sisters. He told them, "Women will have empathy for you and women will shop for you."

The strategy has apparently worked. When asked if they have faced any challenges as women in business, Sharon says, "I really can't say that we've ever been discriminated against. PNC is our bank - they do a fabulous job for us. I really couldn't say that we've had trouble getting loans, making deals…. Maybe it's because there are three of us - it's very difficult to combat three women; it's not just one girl out there by herself. Pittsburgh has been a good environment to us."

Because "being women has worked," the McGinnis sisters make a conscious effort to support other women. "I learned a few years ago that women weren't supporting each other, and I thought, 'Well, I'm going to make an effort for it,'" says Sharon. "And I support small business…. I only go to my small, local, family-owned businesses that I'm trying to support - like they support me. You have to make an effort."

The Future of Family Business
The McGinnis sisters have worked hard to keep the business going for the third and fourth generations to come. As Sharon says, "We don't want to lose [our parents'] life work."

Bonnie notes that their parents were "the real entrepreneurs, because they started with absolutely nothing." She says, "What keeps me going is our family name and our reputation. I always want to be the very, very best. I feel that's more important than making money. People, when they think about McGinnis Sisters, they're always thinking about the very, very best quality…. That's success to me. I think if you get that, then the dollars come."

The sisters agree that Jennifer brings renewed energy and fresh eyes to the enterprise. For her part, she loves being a young woman in business. "I think it's fabulous," Jennifer says. There's nothing better than walking into a networking event or meeting, she says, and being the youngest person — and youngest woman — there, because people want to know who she is and what she does. Not many young people are given this opportunity, she points out. In fact, she says that she is living her version of the American dream.

Everyone agrees that one of the best things about working in a family business is that it ceases to be "work" and becomes just another facet of life instead of a thing of drudgery. Bonnie advises other entrepreneurs, "Do what you love, and love what you're doing."

Jennifer recommends that entrepreneurs continually educate themselves about both similar and dissimilar businesses. "You can really be an alchemist and take a little bit from a lot of places and put it together to make it your own," she says. "I think sometimes people get so focused on the day to day that they don't keep learning, and finding out what the new trends are, what the new technology is. Just because a business might be completely different or the market is different [from yours], you can still take some ideas."

Sharon adheres to her mother's advice: Never let them hold you back. "I'm not quite sure who 'they' was," she says, "but I really took that to heart. If you want it bad enough, then you have to turn over every stone. Don't let the world hold you back from what you can accomplish. You have to have faith in yourself."

Now as a multi-generational family business, McGinnis Sisters is actively pursuing growth opportunities and considering several neighborhoods and service line extensions. Everyone is excited about what lies ahead, including a blossoming career for some and eventual retirement for others.

Sharon sums up their unique way of life when she says: "…For us, this if regular life. This is just what regular life is, and it doesn't seem extraordinary to us, because this is all we know. But I think for people looking from the outside, they think, 'Oh my gosh, wow, you're nationally known and you have all these great foods and you speak all over the country.' That's just regular life to us. I can sit and have tea with a neighbor as well as I can go to San Francisco and speak to 300 people. It's the same thing to me - you're talking about food! It all comes back to food."

More about the women of McGinnis Sisters...

Bonnie Vello - Bonnie served as Vice Regional Supervisor for the United States Pony Club Tri State Region for many years. Previous to her term as Vice RS, she served Brush Run Pony Club as District Commissioner. Bonnie is an avid golfer and a member of the Executive Women's Golf Association.

Sharon Young - Sharon is actively involved with the Western Pennsylvania Minority Golf Association, helping to bring the sport of golf to minorities and urban youth. She is also a member of Western Women, a merit based Golf Association. Sharon is a member of the Women's Chefs Association, Pittsburgh Women Presidents' Organization, and is a Brentwood Economic Development Board Member. Sharon is also an avid public speaker.

Noreen Campbell - Noreen is a member of the Monroeville Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. She is also a very active volunteer with Angel's Place (formerly Mom's House) which provides day care and parenting classes to single parents who are completing their education. Noreen has participated in numerous regional and national speaking engagements and is an avid golfer. She is currently participating in the University of Pittsburgh Katz Graduate School of Business Entrepreneurial Fellows Center.

Jennifer Daurora - Jennifer is a member of the Young Leadership Board of Girls Hope, an organization that helps girls in at-risk environments realize their full potential. She is also a member of the Allegheny College Alumni Council, the governing body of the school's Alumni Association. Jennifer is active in the community and is a member of PUMP, PYP, Pittsburgh Regional Champions, and the Junior League of Pittsburgh. She is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh Katz Graduate School of Business Entrepreneurial Fellows Center. An avid chef, Jennifer will teach two cooking classed this spring at the McGinnis Sisters' Monroeville location.

Bonnie, Sharon, Noreen, and Jennifer are graduates of the Dale Carnegie Training. Jennifer is currently volunteering as a Graduate Assistant for the course.

March 2004