The main objective of this study was to understand human resource managementHuman Resource Management (HRM) practicesHuman resource management practices in twoSmall family business small family businessesFamily business in the interior of PortugalInterior of Portugal. We aimed to explore how the structure of family businesses influences their governance modelsGovernance models and human resource managementHuman Resource Management (HRM) practicesHuman resource management practices. Additionally, we wanted to understand the challenges they face regarding successionSuccession planning. To meet our objective, we employed a case study approach (Yin in Case study research: design and methods. Sage, 1994) in two smallFamily business family businesses located in the interior of PortugalInterior of Portugal. We conducted semi-structured interviews with two managing partners from one company and an entrepreneur from another, accompanied by a documentary analysis. The data collected was analysed using categorical content analysis (Bardin in Edições 70, 2011). Our findings align with family business studies: both companies have low formalization of practices and an arbitrary model, centralized around the entrepreneurs’ discretionary power (Pichault and Shoenaers in Appl Psychol 52:120–143, 2003). The entrepreneurs appear to have stewardship characteristics (Breton-Miller and Miller in Acad Manage Learn Educ 14:386–399, 2015), such as the capability to adapt and to learn by doing, and insights about the business, but are conservative in their management (Marques in Empresas familiares da região norte mapeamento, retratos e testemunhos, Universidade do Minho (CICS.NOVA), 2018).The differences between the companies HRM practicesHuman resource management practices, and governance modelsGovernance models, show that these are shaped by their sector of activity, legal ownership structure, and family businessFamily business structures (Guerreiro in Pequenas E Médias Empresas Familiares. Tipos de relações das famílias com as empresas. Associação Portuguesa de Sociologia. Práticas e processos de mudança social. III Congresso Português de Sociologia, 1996). In the public limited company, which is a family business with a phratry structure and an open autocracy (Gomez in Référentiel pour une gouvernance raisonnable des entreprises. Institut Français de Gouvernement des Entreprises, 2015) governance model, with market culture (Cameron and Quinn, Diagnosing and changing organizational culture. Jossey-Bass, 2006), there appears to be a tendency for more formalisation of practices than in the private limited company with a family businessFamily business marital structure, which is a closed autocracy (Gomez in Référentiel pour une gouvernance raisonnable des entreprises. Institut Français de Gouvernement des Entreprises, 2015), and has characteristics of a clan culture (Cameron and Quinn, Diagnosing and changing organizational culture. Jossey-Bass, 2006). The differences in family business structures and governance modelsGovernance models also reflect the challenges they encounter in successionSuccession planning. Although neither model has formal successionSuccession planning, the situations differ between open and closed autocracies. In an open autocracy, the founder and chairman face limitations in their choice of successor, while in a closed autocracy, the entrepreneur has the freedom to choose their successor.