FACT: If you preside over a family-run company, then...
Dear concerned family business founder, owner or heir:
I can hear what you're thinking:
"How dare I provoke and sensationalize something as sacred as your family business and blame YOU for its demise "
Who am I to make such claims and accusations? I'll get back to that later, but right now believe me when I tell you what you NEED to hear rather than what you WANT to hear.
The ones that do succeed out-perform their peers by orders of magnitude, making it all worthwhile
The facts are crystal clear - thousands upon thousands of honest, hard-working, loyal and dedicated small business owners, just like you , are destroying their family s legacy within one generation, simply due to lack of planning AND understanding.
And in a way, this is understandable:
After all, there are very few resources available to help family firms cope with succession challenges. As you'll see below, succession outcomes for family firms are very different from those of corporate firms. You can't read up on "corporate succession" and hope to understand the key factors for successful family firm succession.
Then there's the fact that most lawyers, accountants or other professional experts charge prohibitive fees ($300+ an hour) just to explain the groundwork and background information associated with succession planning -- that's BEFORE they've even looked at YOUR specific situation. In no time at all you can rack up thousands of dollars in fees just to understand the "lay of the land". Adding insult to injury, while most lawyers and professional advisors have excellent knowledge of the legal, taxation and regulatory aspects of succession, they may NOT be well-versed in the cultural and business planning aspects that are a big part of the solution.
All this makes it very difficult for family firm owners and heirs to dip their "toe in the water" to understand how to cope with the very real threat of a non-existent or bungled succession plan. Until now...
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