minds as possible to figure out solutions for certain issues ,” he says .
While the transition is happening this year , Jay will stay on to oversee the change . “ The business has never been anything but a sole proprietorship , and now this will be our first partnership , so there are a lot of unknowns that will be worked out ,” Taryn says . Trent notes while there may be a stigma associated with family businesses being a tense environment , that has not been the case with his family . “ Spending so many hours together can put a strain on any relationship , especially family , but we all mesh very well and make a great team . I think that caters to our success and has been a very cool aspect of working together ,” he says .
Balancing tradition and change
Maggie Bender-Johnson always imagined working in the family insurance business , Bender Insurance Solutions in Roseville , even though she wasn ’ t quite sure what the company did . As she got older , she also witnessed the crazy hours that her dad Stephen Bender ( a member of Comstock ’ s Editorial Advisory Board ) was logging to grow the company .
After college , she decided to see what she could do somewhere else . “ Ultimately , my personal opinion of my value was way different than my marketability , so with my tail between my legs , I went to my dad and told him I was committed to giving the family business at least two years ,” she says . “ That was 16 years ago and it has definitely been one of the best decisions I ’ ve made .”
The family business was started in 1938 by Stephen ’ s father , Warren G . Bender , a Chico native who came to Sacramento to set up shop . Stephen joined in 1973 and was able to leverage his Sacramento relationships to benefit the business and its growth trajectory . “ Dad had a nice agency , but it was a small agency , and I realized that we had to do things differently . We couldn ’ t abandon values and ethics and all the things that are right , but we had to go through the difficult process of diversification and pushing towards automation and technology , and all of these things were important from an operational point of view ,” he says .
Stephen branched out , adding property development and management , the health care sector , manufacturing silos and agribusiness , taking time to develop expertise and carrier alliances in each arena . And it paid off . Under his leadership , the company grew from three employees to more than 50 , and from $ 725,000 in annual revenue to more than $ 10 million . Now Bender Insurance Solutions is one of Northern California ’ s largest independent insurance brokerages .
Bender-Johnson — who was promoted to president in 2017 — will assume the CEO role when Stephen retires in the next 14 months . He will remain as chairman of the board . She says leading a family company is more than just being an entrepreneur because you are also stewards of your family ’ s legacy . “ I ’ m the steward of my grandpa ’ s and father ’ s baby ,” she says . “ I ’ m the steward of our family ’ s lifestyle , our history . It ’ s like hashtag pressure . I ’ m fine with that . I think I have a really good balance personally , professionally and mentally , but the pressure is real .”
She also leans on her family for support . Both sisters Alison Bender and Jillian Bender-Cormier work in the company , Alison as an account manager and Bender-Cormier as a brand manager . Fortunately for the Bender family , Bender-Johnson was the only daughter who desired a leadership position , so everyone got to have a role they desired . “ It can be lonely at the top ,” she says , “ but you get a lot of trust when you work with family members you have a good relationship with . If you enjoy your family you get to be with them a lot . But that can also be a con if you don ’ t enjoy your family . For me it ’ s a pro .”
Preparing for future opportunities
Dina Vellutini Kimble recalls the first time she went to work with her dad ; she was just 12 years old . She would spend summers helping out at the Sacramento-based family business Royal Electric and loved it , but didn ’ t think it was a career option for her . “ There weren ’ t many women in operations when I was growing up , so I just never even thought of it ,” she says . But that changed when her late father Frank Vellutini — who ran the business for nearly 20 years — took her to dinner during a college-search road trip and asked if she had ever thought of joining the company . “ As soon as he said it , I had my light bulb moment ,” she says , “ which is kind of silly because we are an electrical contractor , but it really was . And I told him , ‘ Dad , I would love to do that .”
Two decades later , Vellutini is now running the company her grandfather started in 1971 , and her father joined in 1974 . “ Now , if you walk through our company , there ’ s a ton of women in operations and leadership positions , so I think we are attracting a lot more women into the industry today ,” she says .
Vellutini started her career at the company as a project manager in 1998 , working in several different areas and jumping at opportunities . She never took for granted she would have a leadership position but was prepared to work hard . “ I think when you are a family member in a family-owned business , you are probably willing to take more risk with your career ,” she says . “ There is somewhat of a sense of security , so I would go deal with difficult jobs , which gave me a really good education for all facets of the company .”
In 2017 , Vellutini became president and then CEO in January 2019 . In December 2020 , her father died , leaving
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