When you keep a business in the family, you have the advantage of a loyal workforce with a personal investment in the company's long-term health. Family businesses, however, also run the risk of longstanding interpersonal issues interfering with productivity. A strategy for running a successful family business must allow room for family members to productively resolve disputes.
Trust
Family members working together at a business usually can rely on a foundation of trust that other business partners must cultivate over time. As long as you have a reasonably healthy relationships with your family members, you most likely can count on them to back you during a crises and not steal money. But this foundation of trust does not excuse you from covering your bases and completing your paperwork. Keep your bookkeeping clear and legitimate, and put legal matters into writing, including the percentage of the business that each family member owns, as well as plans for succession of leadership.
Interpersonal Relationships
Family dynamics can be complicated, and their implications and repercussions should not interfere with a family business. Sibling rivalry can be healthy when you channel it into competition to always do a better job, but it can be detrimental to the well-being of the family business if you and your brother sabotage each other's work. Learn to recognize manifestations of healthy and unhealthy family dynamics in your business, and develop strategies for channeling potentially destructive situations into more constructive outcomes.
Flexibility
At its best, a family business offers a degree of flexibility that a less-insulated company cannot rival. Brothers and sisters usually are more willing than strangers to cover for one another in a crises. A family business, however, runs the risk of developing a dynamic where one family member doesn't pull his weight while others cover for him a disproportionate share of the time. Work on communication in your family business in order to avoid ingrown resentments and relatives who take advantage.
Hiring Nonfamily Members
Although family businesses are owned and staffed primarily by family members, many family businesses also hire employees who are not family members. Nonfamily members working for a family business must be comfortable with the family dynamics and the company culture. Family businesses hiring nonfamily members must create a friendly and inclusive work environment while also maintaining a degree of fairness. Although it is natural to allow family members to leave work early sometimes, this should not cause a nonfamily member to feel unfairly burdened with work.
