Fact: Less than one third of family businesses survive the transition from first to second generation ownership. Another half don’t survive the transition from second to third generation.

Fact: Scooters  offers no less than 20 flavors of frozen custard.

From Berkshire Hathaway and Wal-Mart to Scooter’s Frozen Custard (in my Chicago neighborhood), about 90 percent of all US businesses are family-owned or family-controlled. The issue with many family businesses is that they get stuck doing things the same way they have operated for 10, 15, or 25 years, even when the business out grows that structure.

The company structure typically reflects how it was in their family growing up.

The bully brother is the same bully in the business. Whoever is seen as the head of the household wants to tell everyone else what to do. The peacemaker smoothes things over when tempers explode. The mother controls the budget at home and wants to approve how every dollar is spent.

Regardless of what’s going on underneath, my family business clients come to me because the pain is so great that they can’t stay where they are. It is not only tearing their company apart, but their personal and professional lives as well.

When this happens, the family has four choices:

• Sell out
• Stay the same
• Seek outside help
• Shut Down

They must decide:

• Do we all stay in this business together or does someone exit?
• Is it time for the senior generation to pass the company on the next?
• Do we bring in a professional manager?
• Do we merge with someone else?
• Do we sell out and split the money?

Above all, the decision to change is the first step.

“What are you planning to do the day after you sell your business?”

If they do not have an answer, they are not ready to sell. Good answers have been things like a hobby they want to pursue, or they want to travel or they want to start another business!

Price is almost never this issue. The answer to this question is. I have frequently worked with owners who backed out of a sale transaction weeks before their business sold because they could not face this question about “The Day After”.

Be ready.

You think you have problems during the recession? Think about it, what if your business was outlawed? How would you change it? They did sell alcohol for “medicinal purpose”. (What a concept!) The store in Chicago became a deli. A decade later, things were back to “normal”. Prohibition was repealed.

Jennifer also talks about the pressures and pluses of working in a family business and how she combines her personal and professional life.

In the note, he said that “Tonight, your meal is on us. Compliments of the entire team at Nick’s. No tax. Nothing.”

Customers were delighted! Imagine finishing your dinner (lunch too in this case) and the restaurant says that the meal is on us (and the food was good and the service outstanding.) Outrageous! Nick even got the staff to chip in and donate their time. They all worked for tips that night. (The team split all the tips evenly.)

Nick says he got the idea when he realized that it cost $60 to fill up his gas tank. So while others are charging a fuel surcharge, Nick’s is giving rebates! Even though his cost of flour has doubled in the past month, he shows he still cares about his customers. Now that’s crazy customer service. Nick is known for his generosity. He has been recognized by his peers as the Restaurant Neighbor Award in Illinois in 2007. All of this is very much in line with Nick’s purpose and values- He says that he serves “Pizza on Purpose“!

What outrageously generous things have companies you know been doing to help us doing these tough times?

1. Publish my second book. Done! Bounce! ships January 28th! BTW, this was also a 2006 NYE resolution

2. Publish the audio of my first book, You Need To Be A Little Crazy! Done! It came out last September.

3. Get Katherine, my assistant and I more training. Improve my professional speaking skills. Done. We both went to National Speaker Association events. I worked with Victoria LaBalme, and Robin Creasman. I got up my new web site, brochures, video, and honed my speaker skills.

4. Take a rank promotion at Karate. Done I passed my advanced Green Belt in April with a dislocated finger, bloody toe and bruised ribs.

5. Take Pilates twice a Week. Fail. My trainer, Heidi quit the club and with my new trainer, my travel has not enabled me to do this.

2008 New Year’s Resolutions:

1. Boost Bounce! Get out there and promote the book. Practice, Practice, Practice the Bounce! Keynote speech.

2. Spend more time at our Michigan Beach House with my family. This is a place where there is no TV and no Internet…and somehow we manage to have lots of fun.

3. Take the rank promotion test to Brown Belt in Karate (maybe my last?). Do at least a Yoga minute per day with Sara.

What are your resolutions?

1. We slow down. There is an ending date by which people want to do business every year. Today it is the weekend before Christmas. Next week, we all get a free pass.No one calls. No one emails. It feels like August in Europe. We don’t have to accomplish anything. For at least, one week we are guilt free.

2. We take time off to be with their family. I do not believe that life/work balance really exists. This week belongs to your family and friends. See #1.

3. We stop to reflect on their year. We look back on our celebrations, our accomplishments and our failures. We stop and say thanks to those who have been on the journey with us.

4. We make resolutions. I am not a big fan of making resolutions but the intention is in the right place. If we strive for minimal acheivement and make just one, we have more of a chance to achieve it. We have a chance for the change to stick.

5. We give each other gifts. We think about our clients, friends, and families and shop for something they might like or something they might need. Having an excuse to give someone a gift is alot of fun.

6. We greet each other with a smile. We say “Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year”. This beats “hey, how you doing?” or “bye”.

Why do you love/ hate this time of year?