Second-generation entrepreneurs are reinventing their parents' businesses

When Kevin Bui took over his parents' phở restaurant, the first thing he changed wasn't the menu. It was the point-of-sale system, still running on a decade-old till that couldn't track inventory or generate a sales report. "My dad ran this place by instinct for twenty years, and it worked," Bui said. "But instinct doesn't scale, and it definitely doesn't transfer to a second location."

Bui is one of a growing number of adult children taking over parents' small businesses — restaurants, laundromats, tailoring shops, grocery stores — and quietly modernizing operations without necessarily changing what the business sells or how it feels to customers. Online ordering, digital payroll, social media marketing, and basic financial reporting are common first moves, often implemented over a parent's initial skepticism.

That transition isn't always smooth. Several second-generation owners describe tense early months navigating decisions their parents disagree with, from pricing changes to staffing, compounded by the emotional weight of literally taking over a business a parent built from nothing. "He built this with his hands, during a time when he had way less than I have now," Bui said of his father. "I try to remember that before I tell him his system is inefficient."

For all the friction, most describe the transition as ultimately collaborative rather than adversarial, with parents gradually ceding operational control while staying involved in ways that matter most to them — Bui's father still makes the broth every morning, a task he's shown no interest in handing off, point-of-sale system or not.