Self-Awareness and Clarity Make This Family Business Work

by Elizabeth Denham

Self-awareness and clarity are two things that can be hard to come by in life, but Ellen Davis and Chris Davis have them in spades.

“Ellen is an excellent teacher and resource for me,” Chris said. “She is good at letting me do my own thing – there is no power struggle.”

While it may not be clear from Chris using her first name, Ellen is his mother. She spent 25 years building a Wild Birds Unlimited location in Massachusetts (first in Medway and now in Franklin). In 2018, Chris began the process of buying the business from his mother. While there was a pause in the process in 2020 with COVID-19, he jumped back in over the last year.

“I grew up in the business and began working in the store around age 13 through all of high school and some college,” Chris said. “And then I had music and artistic careers and worked in restaurant management, but I was getting tired of it – the long hours, the exhaustion. And then a few years ago, Ellen told me she was selling. I wanted more work-life balance, so it was a great opportunity.”

Ellen was already in the process of negotiating the sale when Chris told her he wanted to buy it.

“When Chris said he wanted the business, I was really excited for him,” Ellen said. “I thought it was a good move for him from a mother’s point of view and honestly, I thought maybe he would settle down a little bit more.”

In the beginning, it was tough for Ellen to make the transition away from leading the charge. She had to remind herself that it wasn’t her business anymore and allow Chris the freedom to fi nd his way of doing things. Both of these things required self-awareness and clarity about each other’s roles.

“I have adjusted now,” she said. “I think he is much better at running things at this point in my life. It is time for me to retire.”

Ellen makes an effort to allow Chris the latitude to make his own decisions and mistakes and to find his path to success.

“I make sure to tell him when I think things are really good,” she said. “At first, the staff would look to me for guidance or decision-making. I had to redirect them to Chris and make sure he had the authority to lead and to resolve conflict and make decisions. I have to be a big enough person to allow Chris to do things his way.”

Chris feels lucky to have this opportunity.

“It feels rare and special to me,” he said. “She lets me make mistakes, but she is always pushing for my success.”

Chris and Ellen have set some intentional boundaries to help keep things professional in the store.

“I call her by her first name at work,” Chris noted. “It sets up an invisible boundary between us, and it allows the staff to respect me a bit more.”

Ellen had a little bit of a different perspective.

“My daughter told me the reason Chris calls me ‘Ellen’ at work is that ‘Mom’ doesn’t listen,” she laughed.

Today, Ellen is happy to do the books and come in two or three days a week and leave the heavy lifting to Chris. And he is ready to lead.

“I want to continue the growth and success my mother started,” Chris said. “When she started, the franchise was different – it was more mom and pop, and now, it has grown and is streamlined and there is so much support for franchisees. We fared incredibly well during the pandemic, and that was due to the support we got from the franchise.”

Chris credits the Wild Birds Unlimited system for getting them through this last year.

“Without the online store, we would not have made it,” he suggested. “When we shut down, we thought we would be filling online orders every other day. We worked seven days a week to keep up. People seemed to rediscover wildlife when they were stuck at home. We made deliveries ourselves, and customers liked that we still had that personal touch.”

Chris said this is not something he could have done at age 22. But now is the right time in his life.

“I needed to go off on my own and work for a variety of managers and make mistakes and figure it out,” he mused. “I needed my adventure. But now I am ready. And I am looking forward to the future.”

To learn more about Wild Birds Unlimited, please visit https://www.wbu. com/