Sunday, September 15, 2013

Three Tips For Running A Successful Family Business



What do Comcast, News Corp, and Cargill all have in common?  They’re all successful corporations, and they’re all family owned businesses.  Lizzio Development Group was built on the backs of three generations of Lizzios, so we know what it takes to make a successful family business.  Running a family business is appealing to a lot of people, but they shouldn’t make the mistake of thinking that running a family business is easy.  If you’re interested in running a family business, or if you run one that could use some improvement, remember to keep these tips in mind

Don’t be afraid of conflict

Some family businesses end up failing because family members never felt comfortable bringing up business problems to other employees.  Conflict is going to happen in any business, and you can’t be afraid to confront problems head on.  If the thought of telling your cousin that their work has been sub-par, you shouldn’t be running a family business.

Keep work and home separate

Telling someone with a family owned business to keep their home and work lives separate may seem strange, but if you want to run a successful family business you’ll need to learn to separate the two.   Don’t bring work problems to family dinners, and don’t bring up family conflicts at work.  If you can’t learn how to keep the two separate, you’ll start to feel stressed about the wrong things at the wrong time.  As long as you can leave your personal family problems at home, you’ll be able to run a good business.

Only hire skilled family members

This may be the most difficult rule for people to follow since it can be hard to leave certain family members out of the business.  Having a family owned business doesn’t mean that you have to hire every single family member; you should only hire family members you know can do the job.  There’s nothing wrong with hiring your accountant cousin to handle finances, and it’s a wise business decision to not let your uncle with a terrible work ethic join your company.

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