Family Business Matters: Making a success of your family business

Running a business is not easy and for most people life is more comfortable as an employee rather than employer. At its worst managing a business can be likened to warfare; with the potential enemies being manifold in the form of competition, costs, market forces, adverse economic trends, access to resources etc. As if this isn't enough, if you are running a family business it can be almost like fighting a war on two fronts; there is the business and its issues on the one side and the family and their needs on the other and reconciliation of the two can often be challenging, and, in some cases, totally impossible. It's a matter of having to cope with two agendas. All businesses and organisations must cope with the mixture of personal and corporate needs and, in particular, the desires and objectives of the individuals managing the enterprise. With a family business the added challenge is that the personal side will include people who may not actually be employed in the business but who may be owners, family members dependent on the business for their income or family members who may simply influence the decision-making process through relationships with managers or owners. The purpose of this book is to assist family and owner managed businesses to succeed. The definition of success can range from simple survival to empirical growth, depending upon the aims and aspirations of the owners.