Family businesses are a real backbone of any economy and deserve attention and celebration in equal measure as such. Whether they receive state support and recognition they merit given their contribution is a matter of conjecture well beyond the ambit of StressBustingExpert™.
But having had the privilege of providing support to some outstanding, award winning family businesses on the latest stage of their generational journey over almost 3 decades, we have identified some observations that family businesses might benefit from in their operations from a StressBusting™ perspective as follows:-
● Independent Board level input into the business is a great way of complimenting the family's own skill sets and stress testing family decision making - see our post entitled "Engagement with external advisors: key structural considerations" for further relevant considerations
● Family operated businesses should be wary not to show too much loyalty at the expense of the business. Long term relationships which are not working out should be addressed as such without being coloured by involvement which can often stretch back decades - see our post entitled "The Relationship between Toxicity & Stressbusting™" but equally our post entitled "Break Time Quickie - Even wild flowers can blossom" as a useful counterbalance
● It is very important for family members to be able to speak openly about business matters of concern, even amidst any emotional and familial sensitivity - see "Modes of Questioning to Stressbust™ for Loved Ones" for strategies to assist this process
● It is imperative that family operators find a way to separate their home life from their combined work in business. Our post entitled "The importance of recharging to maintain optimum efficiency" summarises ways of doing this
● A family business ought to validate past successes and achievements but embrace new opportunities where possible - an analysis of this balance can be found in our posts entitled "Let go of the Past & Create a New Living Legacy to Stressbust™" and "Balancing "time travel" to StressBust™ - Our "15/60/25 Rule""
● Continuing to draw upon the experience of previous generations can be an excellent way of linking past achievements to future endeavours - "Leverage the Stressbusting™ Wisdom of Age". It could be, for example, that the current generation of family operates the business but a member of a previous generation sits at Board level as an oversight executive or non executive director on behalf of the rest of the family
● Where there is a mix of family members at both director and shareholder level, it might be prudent to agree and enter a shareholders agreement which delineates the rights, duties, powers and obligations as between family members. While these can be challenging to negotiate and agree, they can facilitate more efficient decision making and be a contractual point of future reference that serves to definitively determine, and therefore diffuse, any disagreements or disputes down the line. And note that because they are private agreements between the parties, there is no need for them to enter the public record through, for example, lodging at Companies House
● For similar reasons, it is vital that proper succession planning is in place for individual family members that reflects how those individuals want their interests in the business as well as other assets dealt with in the case of their death or incapacity - our post entitled "Wills, Insurance, Powers of Attorney & Life Planning as Stressbusting™ Essentials" describes relevant factors at play in this regard.
If you can relate to the contents of this post and would like the further value of our extensive expertise in this area, please reach out to us in confidence via our "Contact" page.
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