Are you in a family business? Some of the business owners we speak to don’t even regard that as a thing. It’s just the way they do business. Others don’t see it as anything special. That’s a shame, because they are missing out on resources that specifically offer help to family business stakeholders. But first exactly what is a family business?
There are plenty of definitions, if you enjoy collecting definitions. The one we go for is “a business that is in the effective control of two or more members of the same family.”
So the husband-and-wife team that run the tradie business (he’s in the ute, she does the books): yep. Many family farms: yep. The general store or servo where Mum, Dad and the kids all help out at different times: yep. The formal company structure of a large business, where family members have shareholdings and some of them are directors of the company: yep again.
The family business sector is as diverse as families are, and it’s also the backbone (too often under-rated) of our economy. Family businesses make up 2/3 or more of Australian businesses, and provide more than half the private-sector jobs in the country. The total capital value of Australia’s family businesses is estimated at $4.3 trillion (with a T).
In Australia’s regions, where the corporate sector is represented by branch offices at best, it’s wall-to-wall family businesses. It is indeed just the way we do business.
There’s one thing a huge number of these diverse families have in common: succession. In many cases, the founders are baby-boomers or post-war migrants, and the time is near to transition the business. Even for businesses that have been in the family longer than that, the new generation may not want to take over (that was once the unspoken assumption), or may not have the skills.
Scary fact: 1 in 3 families with a business have not yet thought about a succession in leadership or ownership.
There’s one common factor in family business succession: if you plan, in advance, and document your plan, it can all go well; if you don’t, it won’t. Where to start? The best place is with a conversation, around the kitchen table, facilitated by an accredited advisor.
Our CEO, Iain, is one of two family business advisors in our region accredited by the peak body, Family Business Australia. Let’s start the conversation.
Hit our contact bottom to start talking with us!
Resources
You owe it to yourself, as a family business stakeholder, to become familiar with the national peak body: www.familybusiness.org.au
And we at Upland Consulting maintain a safe space for family business discussions on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/10542660/