How I Got Sucked Into The family Business

 How I Got Sucked Into The Family Business - Sophie Rabinovitch

If you knew me during my first years college and asked if I was going to move back home and work for my family business, I would have said oh hell no!

It was always a mission of mine and to branch out to prove to my family that I could be on my own. Fortunately for you, we have got a lot of backstory, starting all the way back in 2011! 

My dad has always been a business man which is something I have always admired him for. He is ambitious and when he created Impact he dedicated his everything to it. While I love him for that, I didn’t love him for it at the time when I was a snotty little 11 year old. 

Being “forced” to go in to fold papers and put labels on bags on my precious weekend mornings (lets be honest who did I really have to hang out with at that age anyways) made me resent doing the work, unfortunately. 

As I grew up if I wanted money I had to get a job. You know… finding a job when your 16 isn’t always the easiest thing. Who wants to hire a teenager who doesn’t know shit? Well, the ice cream place across from my house and the good old family business wanted this fabulous piece of work. 

While I was working at impact doing the “grunt” work I would always get so frustrated. I thought I didn’t have the respect of my family when I had to do these things and I wasn’t understating why I did. I learned later on in life that everyone has to do it when they start out but at the time I thought they were the worst possible things my father could make me do. I would get so angry because in my mind it felt like they thought I was only good for that sort of work. 

To give you a little synopsis on some of my duties here is my least favorite one.

So you all know we do reorders right? In our first big office we had a warehouse like shed that housed all of the impressions. In this dingy shed the lights rarely worked and you would be lucky if it was just a spider jumping on you in the darkness. Me and Tooth Fairy Kathy used to play rock paper scissors on who had to go fetch them. To me this kind of work felt like punishment. 

This “grunt work” put a bad taste in my mouth as I thought well that’s all I'll ever do if I work for Impact. So when I graduated high school and went to college I set out to create a life of my own and make my own career path. 

I go through the first two years of college figuring out what I really loved and wanted my major to be. Low and behold what do you think I ended up choosing? Sports Management…

I absolutely loved it when I started and by the end of my junior year it became time to find an internship. Through my fathers connections with USA Boxing I was able to land an internship there. Man was I excited. That May me and my dad packed up all my shit and spent 22 blissful hours together on the ride to Colorado Springs.

I spent that whole summer meeting new people, traveling, and enjoying every new thing I learned. I made some lifelong friends with my coworkers who I still keep in touch with! Even with the satisfaction of succeeding with flying colors there was still something missing. 

I was loving every moment of the internship but when I would go home, to the rancid little apartment I was subletting that summer, it felt like something was missing. Being there alone with my thoughts, I felt like my life and all he people I left in Georgia were passing me by. That’s a pretty hard pill to swallow when you are in a state where you barely know anyone and all of your friends and family are still tooling around together. 

That summer left room for a lot of growth and reflection. 

It made me realize how much family really means to me. And, while I love to be independent, living without my family close by really was not an option for me. It was a challenging time which I would not want to do without them again. I am forever thankful for that summer and the many lessons it taught me. 

Moving on to my senior year of college I narrowed the job search down to Georgia and Georgia only. Now in a post COVID world, jobs are far and few in between. I put my heart into searching for a job and during that process Impact started to creep into the back of my mind. When I began truly considering it I would still blow it off. 

I didn’t want my family to think I couldn’t get a job or my friends to think of me as the girl who has it easy because daddy gave her a job. It was a constant back and forth of those pluses and minuses, even when I decided that it was truly what I wanted to do. 

So, I decided to give it a shot after I graduated. Coming home from school Frank graciously gave me a cool five days of summer. Which honestly, didn’t really bother me. I was truly pumped to get to work. 

Fast forward to now, it is December of 2022 and I have been working with my family for just about eight months! I love all of the things I am doing and that I am truly allowed to be my creative self. I have an interesting way of approaching things and I am glad my family can appreciate that. For example, when we sat together and they told me that they wanted me to write this my first question wasn’t 

How long? Or

When do you need it by?

In true Sophie style the only question I had was can I cuss? 

They said, write it out how you would and then we'll take a look.

Now this, this is how I got stuck working for the family business. My family appreciates my ideas and I am able to speak freely. 

As Frank says.. “no idea is a bad idea". 

I think I would be in a much different place if I didn’t get to see my family and work with them every day. 

I mean still living at home might be a litttttle much (if anyone knows my friend Carly… tell her to hurry up) but for the time being it works. And we work. 

It's unconventional. Most families would rip each others heads off. 

Instead, we crack jokes and move on with our day. 

Besides working for your family has its bonuses. Who else would be able to put up with my attitude?

I’m not going anywhere!