3 simple shifts to set your business up for the next generation.
Running a family business can be incredibly rewarding. It gives you the chance to build something meaningful, lasting, and uniquely your own. But when you’re working with family – whether that’s your spouse, siblings, parents, or adult children – it can also get complicated!
A lot of conventional succession planning advice isn’t aimed at family businesses. (Try doing a formal performance review for your spouse and let me know how it goes…)
Preparing for an ownership transition can be like the maze my 7-year-old drew for me to solve. He worked hard creating a labyrinth of dead ends, winding paths, and even a magic portal or two. It was only missing one thing… the little illustration that shows you where to start solving from.
The complex maze gets even harder when you don’t know where to begin. You know the relationships and levels of responsibility are going to have to change, but you’re stuck if you’re not sure what the first step is.
Building a Future-Proof Family Business
A 2024 Barlow survey found that 42% of small business owners plan to transition ownership in the next 5 years – and 28% plan to keep it in the family. If you’re in that group, you’re probably already thinking about what it will take to pass the torch successfully.
The first step doesn’t need to be a big one. Here are three simple shifts you can make in your family business that can help set up a successful transition in the future.
1. Don’t meet at the dinner table
As much as possible, keep work at work. Schedule real meetings during business hours. Imagine you didn’t have the option to talk over dinner or late at night – how would you carve out the time to communicate? Do that instead… It will make the business more self-sufficient and give you back valuable family time.
2. Keep home at home
Showing up at work as a professional means speaking to each other as colleagues. While you’re at work, stick to first names – not “Honey” or “Dad”. Clear boundaries between who you are at home and at work make it easier to keep the “home” relationships strong even as “work” relationships shift.
3. Embrace a fresh perspective
Welcoming (or at least considering) fresh ideas instead of falling back on ‘the way we’ve always done it’ makes the business stronger. For the current owner, making a conscious decision to embrace new ideas now can make it easier to step back when the time comes.
When you feel stuck, find your conversation is going in circles, or inadvertently bring work drama home, it’s worth bringing in an outside expert to help work through the challenges. Your spouse isn’t your coach, and your adult child can’t be your lawyer – finding experts you all trust will help you get off the hamster wheel.
This Week’s Takeaway
Whatever your timeline is for leaving your business, building a business that can survive a leadership transition is smart. The end result is more resilient, more valuable, easier to scale, and just more fun to run.
What’s one small shift you can make this week that would set up the next owner of your business for greater success?
Listen to Donna Pinsonneault, CEO of She’s Got Leggz inc. as we cover the importance of tenacious (yet open and mindful) problem solving, how to approach major organizational changes, overhauling infrastructure and tech, prioritizing team growth with business development, and more!
Obviously Awesome: By April Dunford
If you’ve ever felt like your product should be flying off the shelves but just isn’t landing with the right people, Obviously Awesome by April Dunford might be worth a look. It’s a practical dive into positioning to help clarify what makes your product valuable and who needs to hear about it, through case studies, anecdotes, and processes you can test out for yourself.
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