ORIGINAL PAPER Is What’s Good for the Business, Good for the Family: A Financial Assessment George W. Haynes Æ Joseph I. Onochie Æ Glenn Muske Published online: 5 June 2007 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007 Abstract Small business prosperity doesn’t necessarily translate into family prosperity. This study utilizes the first and second waves of the National Family Business Survey to explore the influence of changes in key business financial measures on objective and subjective measures of family success. Increases in the available cash in the business from higher gross sales or net profits brings more cash into the household, while increases in the market value of the business increases the amount of money spent on other household assets. A more subjective assessment suggests that positive changes in the business financial measures create a more positive perception of the business’ success; however, these positive changes have no influence on a more positive perception of the family’s success. Keywords Business  Family  Financial  Success G. W. Haynes (&) Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics, Montana State University, 210E Linfield Hall, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA e-mail: haynes@montana.edu J. I. Onochie Department of Economics and Finance, Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College, C.U.N.Y, One Bernard Baruch Way, Box B 10-225, New York, NY 10010, USA e-mail: Joseph_Onochie@baruch.cuny.edu G. Muske College of Human Environmental Sciences, Oklahoma State University, 135 HES, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA e-mail: glenn.muske@okstate.edu 123 J Fam Econ Iss (2007) 28:395–409 DOI 10.1007/s10834-007-9069-4