Sara Pantaleo
La Porchetta

Industry
Fully Licensed restaurants and franchising

What generation is your family business?
The co-founders were my brother Rocco Pantaleo and another family Felice Nania

What is your role in the family business?
CEO, Director and Chair

What/ who is a major influence for your in the family business?
Our vision is to be the leading local Italian in Australia and New Zealand.  I love the way food gets people together in all sorts of circumstances. I love bringing this to our guests, as well as working with our franchisees to achieve their dream in small business ownership and being their own boss.  I love the sense of community we have throughout our team, the restaurant teams and our guests who visit us each day.

What keeps you awake at night?
Ensuring we stay innovative and always strive towards strong profitability for our business and all our other family businesses’ in our franchisees, while ensuring we foster a safe and happy team.

What’s the key benefit of your FBA membership?
Education and understanding the unique challenges in family business.  I am a member of a forum group and this really helps me self-assess as well as learn.  The courses I have attended and networking I have participated in has helped me improve our business.

Adviser member

Kirsten Craze
Craze Solutions

How long have you been working with family businesses?
I started working with Family Businesses 3 years ago when I was asked to Coach the owner of a Family Business.

What’s one of the most common mistakes you see in family businesses?
The most common mistake I see in family business is not making time to Plan.  They end up chasing their tail with a huge To Do list with nothing crossed off the list.

What is your “uh ha” moment with your clients? When they realise…
My Uh ha moment with clients is when they realise that their business has grown exponentially but the stafff are not representing the culture and ethos that the Family Business was built on. This is a casualty of growth from less than 10 employees to more than 50 employees. There is enormous value in formalising the Family Business values/traits that are the core of success and making them live in the organisation.