Save The Drama! How To Successfully Run A Family Business
Starting a small business is difficult enough, but starting a business with family presents its own unique challenges. Whether you’re mother and daughter, father and son, siblings, cousins, or anything in between, family businesses tend to struggle for a variety of reasons. In fact, around seventy percent don’t outlast the first generation. That being said, with proper planning and preparation it is possible to beat the odds and reach family business success. With that in mind, here are five things you should do to avoid any potential problems.
- Communicate Openly And Honestly
Differences in opinion and various issues are inevitable in business, regardless of how close you may be with your family. While it may be difficult and awkward to confront loved ones about your problems, not doing so will only ever lead to bad feelings, which can cause lasting damage. Because of this, it’s important that you’re always open and honest about how you feel. Make sure that you schedule regular business meetings so that everyone can voice anything they need to.
- Treat Every Employee Fairly
You may be running a family business, but that doesn’t mean that all of your employees are family. In fact, most of them shouldn’t be. As well as permanent members of staff, you’ll also likely work with freelancers and professional agencies, such as a seo company or a cleaning service. It’s important that you treat each of these groups just like you do your family, and ensure you give the right employees the right jobs, rather than just handing roles to loved ones.
- Listen To Every Generation
More often than not, family businesses struggle and fail because the older generations refuse to listen to the opinions and views of younger family members, especially when it comes to updating the company. At the same time, those younger individuals assume those older than them are out of touch and are too quick to overturn their methods. To have the best chance at survival, you need to get the perspective of every generation and take every view into account.
- Put Everything In Writing
Whether you’re working with family or not, you need to understand that you’re running a business, and there’s no place for “but we’re family” or “trust me” in a company. For that reason, you need to document in writing everything that is agreed between you and the loved ones you’re in business with like you would with anyone who isn’t family. You should also create a plan to specify what would happen to your company is anything were to happen to you.
- Leave Work At Work
When you’re working with family, it’s more important than ever that you maintain a healthy work-life balance. Although there will be times when talking about business outside of work is inevitable, you should try to avoid it wherever possible. You should also make sure that you spend some quality time with loved ones away from the office, doing something you all enjoy. This can help to ease any tension that might have built up during your time working together.
Running a successful family business isn’t easy, but the tips above should help you to avoid any major drama.
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