First, let me explain the title of this editorial. No, wait, I will get to that at the end, because one of the focuses of this issue is Part 2 of our Family Planning series on family-owned, multi-generational team dealers. It turns out there are still quite a few of them left — although their numbers certainly are dwindling as first- and second-generation owners retire or sell their businesses due to any number of factors.

The largest of those factors is the lack of a next generation to take over. The numbers are familiar  — only 30 percent of family-owned businesses survive into a second generation and an even fewer 12 percent make it to a third. That makes the stories that appear in this issue – and in Part 1 in the September issue of Team Insight and Part 3 in the November/December issue – even more remarkable.

But if you look at the nature of the team dealer business, this isn’t quite as remarkable as it would seem. That’s because most of these dealers were founded as family businesses and have always maintained that personal touch that can only be found in a place where the owner is the guy (or gal) who answers the phone. That personal touch lends itself to an environment that can be passed down generation to generation.

But that is not to say that passing a team business down is a given. The most common reasons are that “The kids just aren’t interested” or even, “They don’t want to work as hard as I did to be successful.”

While those reasons are apparent in the number of team dealers that either sell out or close altogether, they don’t pertain to the 10 team dealers we are profiling in this special three-part series. Those dealers have bucked those trends, overcome both professional and personal challenges and have survived to become multi-generation businesses.

Which brings this editorial full circle to the Millers. The title comes from a hilarious movie I watched a few years ago called “We’re The Millers” that starred among others, Jennifer Aniston of “Friends” fame.

But in the world of team sports, the Millers are the Miller family of Scholastic Sports Sales in upstate New York — Justin, who serves as president and is on the NSGA board of directors, and his two brothers, Josh and Matt. I got to know the Millers at NSGA Leadership Conferences and was saddened when I heard that their father, Jeff, who was also on the NSGA board and who my wife and I got to know fairly well over the years, passed away suddenly late last year.

Jeff and his wife, Wendy, had run the business for more than 40 years and he was one of the most well-respected men in the team sports business. The fact that his three sons have made it one of those rare third-generation businesses is testament to his legacy and to the resiliency of the Miller family. The Millers were the initial inspiration for our this series and we are happy to tell their story in these pages.

So meet this issue’s Family Planning dealers and use them as inspiration for the future of your own team business.