Key Issues for Successful Family Owned Businesses

Are you clear about those values? Do your children understand the values? Would they be able to pass those values onto their next generation? It seems to be a very important component to making sure that we keep our businesses and our families together. The second thing that seemed to come up as being really important was to develop both your business skills and your family skills. Many businesses know the types of business skills that they've really got to be able to develop over time, whether it's financial market, product development, and so on. But did you know that it's just as important that the family develop some skills so that they can improve communication, make sure that they understand the impacts of the business on the family, make sure that they understand what are the foundations of conflict resolution and building family harmony. Build the family skills at the same time as you're building those business skills.

The next thing that seemed to be really important was as your business grows and we developed the capacity within the business, that we also develop the capabilities of your people. As businesses grow and change, we need a different level of sophistication. Businesses that are able to survive from one generation to the next, pay attention to making sure that everybody's skills are improving over time so that we have the knowledge, skills, abilities, competencies that are necessary, not just for today, but for the business of the future. Finally, businesses that survive from one generation to the next, while paying attention to that business, they understand that families matter, that nurturing those relationships are really important. Because over time, if those relationships are not strong, solid, healthy, harmonious, then the shine of that business can wear off pretty quickly.

Here at EisnerAmper, we'd really like to help and we truly do wish you the very best for your family business from one generation to the next. Thank you.