Doing business with family can be both perilous and rewarding to your family and business relationships. However, having a family-based business has its own perks as well as downsides, since there are professional and personal relationships that need to be balanced. All thriving family-based business shared various but similar points of success and here are some of them provided by co-founder and CEO of Athyr Beauty™, Veronica Arrendol.
1. Create an exit strategy that allows you to end the partnership without risking your family ties. Remember all things eventually come to an end, so whether you sell your business or pursue other opportunities, when you end a family business, your family ties live on.
2. Know when you have to give some respect. In a conversation as business partners, you and other family members must use professional tone and act like one, too. Make it a priority to promote a work atmosphere that is more professional and less personal.
3. Working with family members does not mean that you are free from misunderstanding. To avoid this, ou must have clearly defined time commitments and responsibilities. Understand what each of you is signing up for and only renegotiate those agreements with everyone at the table.
4. When you manage a business that involves lots of partners, blame game is a classic problem. As the company grows and the work piles up, you must avoid the tendency to have everyone handling everything. In your desire to help one another you can end up duplicating effort and working inefficiently.
5. Frustration can mount and lead to finger pointing when you are pressured to meet deadlines. Make sure you have clearly defined work responsibilities and a good communication plan; this will ensure that your actions match your agreements.
6. As family and business partners you can often mix ‘love and praise’, versus ‘respect and feedback’. There can be too much emphasis on personal feelings and too little on metrics and goals; you need to keep personal feelings from dominating the office place for the sake of the business.
