Basic Trope: A business that is owned and operated by people related to one another through blood or marriage.
- Straight: Alice and Bob own a restaurant. Alice is the executive chef, Bob takes care of payroll and finances, their 17-year-old son Daniel works as a line cook, and their 15-year-old daughter Carol waits tables.
- Exaggerated:
- Every member of their family plays some role at the restaurant, which has been in the family ever since Alice's great-great-great-great-great-grandfather came over from The Old Country.
- The restaurant is staffed by a Family of Choice, or friends (and in some cases, acquaintances) who are considered "honorary family", even addressed as "Auntie" or "Uncle".
- Downplayed: The restaurant is owned by Alice and Bob.
- Justified: Alice and Bob have enough capital to start the restaurant but not enough connections to hire outside their family.
- Inverted: The restaurant is owned and staffed by people who are unrelated to one another.
- Subverted:
- Alice and Bob own a franchise of a chain restaurant.
- Alice and Bob sell the restaurant and put it under new management.
- Alice and Bob own it, but don't hire relatives to work there.
- Bob is the owner, but Alice is not considered a joint owner, even though she's his wife.
- Double Subverted:
- They employ their children (so long as they're old enough to work there), and/or other relatives. So, it still has that "Mom and Pop" feel, despite being part of a restaurant chain.
- They sell it to Bob's brother, Rob.
- Alice and Bob get divorced, and Alice gets ownership of the restaurant in the divorce settlement. She hires some of her relatives, and her new husband Charles, to work there.
- Parodied: ???
- Zig-Zagged: ???
- Averted: Alice and Bob don't own a business together.
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded: ???
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Alice or Bob refuse to let their family members work at the restaurant to avoid accusations of nepotism.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Played for Laughs: Alice and Bob's children are hilariously incompetent at their jobs.
- Played for Drama: Alice and Bob expect one of their children to take over the business one day, but neither of their children want to. This results in a lot of tension between everyone involved.
