Nguyen Stump, left, a vice president at Embolden Design, works with Jason Davenport, senior programmer. On the right side are Jason’s brother Justin, and Mary Harrington, senior Web editor and sister of the company president. At far right, Pam Ardizzone, marketing director, is married to Marc Ardizzone, a vice president.

The Providence Journal / Sandor Bodo

Ann-Marie Harrington, company founder

John Gosselin, Web production assistant, discusses a project with Nguyen Stump, vice president of Web development and systems operations, and Jason Davenport, senior programmer.

The Providence Journal / Sandor Bodo

After four years learning the craft of Web design, Ann-Marie Harrington knew she was ready.

What had started in 1994 as a project designed to publish Rhode Island Kids Count reports online became a bit of an obsession, with Harrington teaching herself how to create Web sites night after night. In 1998 she began to scale down the time she worked as a research analyst for Rhode Island Kids Count and spent more time on her start-up Web-design company, Embolden Design.

What started as a business running out of her home with only three customers quickly grew into much more. Within two years Harrington had turned Embolden into a full-time job for her, as well as a number of contractors, who later became full-time employees. During those first few years, Harrington said, the company was doubling in size every year. That growth meant Harrington had to bring in employees, and without a human-resource staff, she didn’t have a lot of time to put into the recruitment effort.

So, she did what a lot of people tell you never to do. She hired her sister, Mary T. Harrington.

“I spent a long time and was very thoughtful about whether or not to hire family members,” Harrington said. “I could see in some families, in some businesses, how it had not worked well. But, I knew she was the right kind of person for the job and I knew I could trust her, so I decided to ask her and she said yes immediately.”

But hiring her sister might have been easier since hiring family has been a trend at Embolden. Harrington had already hired her sister-in-law. Her vice president of Web development and design, Marc Ardizzone, was married to a woman — Pamela Ardizzone — who could do promotions for the company, so she was hired. Later, Jason Davenport, the company’s senior programmer, suggested his brother to help with site design.

Today, Embolden’s open, brightly colored office in Pawtucket has more people working in it who are related to one another company than those who are not. Whereas some might worry that having so many personal relationships swimming about in a professional environment could present problems, Harrington and her employees all said that it has been a definite plus.

“People really like to see that my business is all about relationships,” Harrington said. “When we are having conversations with clients it’s clear to them that we are working in a very positive atmosphere. I think they feel that we can give them a lot of personal attention here that they might not get with other companies.”

The fact is, working with relatives, siblings, spouses or best friends is not always a bad thing, and in many cases the results can be very positive. But, according to those who have done it and those who have watched and advised others who have done it, it’s very important to set up ground rules first.

“If everyone knows what their role is, what their stakes are, then it’s a lot easier to make it all work,” said Mark S. Hayward, district director of the U.S. Small Business Administration in Rhode Island. “When you are dealing with family members in a business, you just have to remember to keep those issues with the business and other issues out of it.”

Hayward and his staff work with small companies and start-ups, giving them advice on how to meet business regulations, expand their operations or simply find financing to begin with. He and his team, he said, have seen almost every kind of business and personal relationship. In practice, he and his staff explained, working with family is no more dangerous or prone to mishap than working with anyone else.

“The players just have to be mature enough to realize that there are two sides to their relationship and understand how to deal with that,” Marilyn Bogue, another SBA employee, said. “What can be negative is if a family member takes advantage of a situation or tries to get away with something because he or she is family. Sometimes the other employees can start to think family members are getting preferential treatment.”

Customers, Hayward said, don’t consider family members working together to be any more or less professional. What matters, he said, is that they produce a good product and have a good work ethic, and do what the customer is hoping for.

So, how do the employees at Embolden Design keep the personal from interfering with their work?

“My tip would be to first give it a lot of thought and then make sure to set some ground rules,” Pamela Ardizzone said. “How are you going to conduct yourself at the office? What might happen if one of you gets fired? These are things you should think about and discuss.”

Marc Ardizzone, echoing his wife’s remarks, stated that for him one of the hardest things to do was to not let his marriage to a colleague make him favor that colleague’s requests over those of others.

“Of course, I’m going to do what my wife wants me to,” he said. “Sometimes I have to remember what the priority is.”

One of the biggest points that Anne-Marie Harrington and her employees all mentioned was that hiring people because they are family is just as much of a mistake as not hiring them because they are family.

“I knew he would make a good fit because I knew my brother,” Jason Davenport said of his brother Justin. “He didn’t get hired because he was my brother. He applied and went through the same interview process as anyone else.”

For those who are part of the Embolden family, but are not Harringtons, Ardizzones or Davenports, not being related to a colleague doesn’t seem to be much of a problem.

“When I first started here I had no idea anyone was related,” said John Goffelin, who started at the company a few months ago. “I guess I should have figured it out sooner, given that there are so many of the same last names.”