Posted on: 11 Sep, 17
Family succession planning is a journey that should commence the day you start your business, but often only commences with a trigger – in other words, something that has initiated the decision to start the succession process. It may be one of the most challenging experiences facing any business leader, especially an entrepreneurial business person who has built a family business from scratch, so it is crucial to get right.
For a family business, transition is a once-ina- lifetime decision. Perhaps no challenge has as much potential to exacerbate the special stresses – or, conversely, highlight the special advantages – of operating a family business.
good succession plan can be the first step in maintaining the strength of an enterprise and the family’s prosperity for generations to come. Discussing how a family business should continue beyond the career, or even the life, of the founder can be difficult, as it often crosses business and personal spheres. Issues around succession planning make up four of the top ten worries keeping family business owners awake at night, according to research from Close Brothers Asset Management (CBAM), conducted by Family Business United.
Families who are in business must give their attention to the organisational needs of not only their business but also that of their family and, most importantly, those areas where business and family intersect. Often family and business are so closely interwoven that it is almost impossible for the family to come together without bringing the business with them. This is not always a good thing, and family meetings are not necessarily the ideal setting to consider and discuss business.
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