Pros
I was a college grunt worker here. I was laid off when the recession hit (and not surprised). To give you an idea of how much the family running the place cared (the Kaisers), I received a check around late December the same year because the company received more money than they thought they would. The company split this excess among its laid off employees. I seriously doubt any other company CEO would do that. The company seemed to genuinely care about its employees, but to earn that care you had to actually work.
Cons
Sometimes the family-owned dynamic can create odd inefficiencies amongst themselves, but this is a really minor problem.