Having a business with your parents, your children or your relatives can be a dream or a nightmare. How to make them successful and survive the first generation.
The father or mother started it, the business grew and now it spans generations. Family members end up being co-workers, and it is often difficult to establish criteria of rank, organization and responsibilities without falling into fights.
How do family businesses guarantee their permanence and progress? First, its members love what they built from scratch, appreciate what they have, respect their values, and work with their parents, children, or siblings because they chose to do so.
Forcing someone to stay in a company is the first mistake if you want to keep the business afloat: whoever wants to get on the bandwagon, continues the legacy. Those who don’t are freed from responsibilities…and dividends.
Additionally, those who stay must have very clear communications and rules. A study published by Maria Serra, from the National University of Cuyo in Argentina, ensures that it is essential to establish an intra-family communication system that only touches on economic issues.
Holidays, meetings and birthdays are in another chat.
Once the communication channel is created, these steps must be followed:
Clarify and delimit the areas of action of the family and the company.
Establish in advance how to solve problems that are likely to occur.
Take into account interests, expectations, personal objectives and professionals of the family members to evaluate their compatibility with the company strategy.
Objectify and depersonalize activities carried out by family members in the company: remuneration, performance, job assignment, etc.
The five maxims you should follow
- Combine tradition and evolution
Your partners are your lifeblood, and it can be a blessing or a nightmare. So that it doesn’t become a constant fight, you have to trust the younger generations who want to get involved.
Young people are capable of preserving what made the company great and proposing new objectives, such as appearing on social networks or changing financial processes.
- Don’t be afraid to change
Believing that a system that has always worked should not change is a mistake. As the famous book “Gatopardo” states, it is necessary for everything to change so that everything remains the same.
To evolve is to survive. Agree to replace manual processes with more automated ones and open yourself to possibilities such as E-commerce.
Bet on technology, since there are numerous tools that will facilitate processes that previously took a long time, such as the results of a balance sheet.
- Standardize with clear processes for everyone
There are family businesses that never grow. And the reason is that they have not standardized their processes to be more productive or they do not dare to tell family members that things should be done in only one way.
Having a common method will save many fights and bring excellent results. Always make clear schedules, methods, communication channels and procedures.
- Open your borders
There are SMEs that function very well at the local level and do not dare to take the step of offering their products or services in other countries. The necessary investment with the Internet and with portals such as Amazon or Mercado Libre is almost zero. You just have to have someone enthusiastic who publishes the products on the portals and receives the messages.
- If you don’t like it, delegate and step aside
If you inherited your family business and you feel that it is a mandate that you do not like, you must learn to delegate. It is better to take the step and leave the company running than to do it badly.
