What is the ‘business of family’?
At Family Business Central we believe the secret to a great family business is to get the ‘business of family’ sorted out before anything else.
Mixing family and money together can be a pretty lethal undertaking—we’ve all heard of the various disaster stories. The toxic mix of greed, love, loyalty and money can be pretty powerful.
A fully-functional family business is a magnificent operation. The coordinated potential, drive, energy and skills of a family business become a force that can wipe out the competition.
Family businesses take a longer-term view, build great cultures, look after their people and have an honesty and frankness that can shock others.
They’re agile, can devolve power and decision making so that opportunities are not lost and can make decisions and implement them in a moment—try that at a large corporate!
The business of family is all about agreements and decisions within the family. Which is why having a Family Charter is important – it brings all these elements together in one document.
This includes the family’s values, entrepreneurism, agreement on what the family gets from the business, who and how family members work and the business’s succession.
Once you have the business of family settled, the family business is able to grow and flourish.
Leaders can focus on making the business amazing without having to deal with ‘family stuff’ all the time.
Expectations and roles are clear and people know what they’re doing. Decisions can be made fast and there are no distractions—you’re all set to take over the world!
Having the business of family documented in a Family Charter also enables key decisions around business structures, tax, trusts etc. to be made quickly and relatively easily.
This is because the family knows the direction it’s going in and just needs to get the right technical things in place to achieve it.
Lawyers, accountants, financiers and banks all love this, because it not only makes their job easier, the results are far more robust and long-lasting.
