All Family Business Consulting
The Good News: Family business is big business.
More Good News: Most family businesses are not like what you see on the HBO TV Series “Succession”.
Fact: 90% of U.S. business are family owned or controlled.
Fact: More than 1/3 of the Fortune 500 companies are family owned or controlled by families.
Fact: Family businesses generate 50% of the GNP.
The Bad News: Most family business do not survive transitions.
Fact: Less than 1/3 of family businesses survive the transition from first to second generation ownership. About half don’t survive the transition from second to third.
Why Family Business is So Hard
Traditional family relationships complicate things. As a small business expert, Barry notices that alot of times the company structure reflects the roles they have in their family. 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 smooths things over when tempers explode. The mother controls the budget at home and wants to approve how every dollar is spent. Personal feelings from a lifetime of baggage makes every relationship more complicated and sometimes unbearable in a business environment.
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 outgrows that structure. Regardless of what’s going on underneath, Barry’s family business clients come to him because the pain is so great that they can’t stay where they are. It is not only tearing their company apart, but their family.
Barry helps them get from where they are to where they need to go.
What Can Help All Family Businesses
Define in detail what each family member does in the company. Discuss how family members become part of the business.
Decide who leads and which “swim lane” each family member is in (and when can you cross into another’s lane).
Decide how difficult decisions will get made.
In every conversation, leave what happened in the past behind and look forward to how it can be done in the future.
Decide how transitions will be made to the next generation, or if a professional manager will be hired or if the company will be sold.
Family business can be profitable and fulfilling.
Get more information at www.allfamilybusiness.com
Barry has personal experience in every phase of business and is not afraid to ask his clients hard questions; sometimes, they even get him fired!