Family businesses are always challenging, but especially during the holidays, and Ellen talks with Jim about some of the things families who work together can grow closer during the holidays, or at least not hurt each other.

Ellen and Jim celebrate her 8th anniversary of being on the show by talking about what it takes to successfully transition a family business from one generation to the next.

Ellen and Jim talk about how to deal with alcoholism at work. How to detect it and how to help those who are alcoholics. They also provide a phone number to call for help.

Ellen and Jim celebrate Family Business Week by talking about some of the secrets of success of family businesses, including having the children go to work somewhere else before they join the family firm full time.

Ellen joins Jim to discuss how to overcome differences in your family business.

Dr. Frankenberg joins Jim to talk about the extra degree of difficulty that is added to a small business operation when family members are directly involved. One of the tools Ellen offers is to follow the "straight line" method of communicating, which is to deal directly with the person involved, rather than relying on a third individual to relay information. They move on to talk about "family norms".

Ellen talks with Jim about the dynamics and the baggage that are part of a family owned business, and how to deal with all of this as members of your company, and managers of this business as it competes in the marketplace.

Ellen helps Jim discuss how to manage working with your family, with all the business stress, and then share in family settings with these same people. The challenge is to be able to partition the two areas of your life so that you can be productive and successful in the business, and civil and loving in the family circle. Ellen provides tools that will help you leave the business at the office, especially during the holidays.