A very large percentage (perhaps over 60%) of small and medium sized businesses in the UK are family owned enterprises.
Interestingly very few of them are successfully passed on down to the third generation.
Some suggestions are that less than 3% make it from Parent, to Child, to Grandchild.
There are lots of reasons for this but generally it can be put down to the absence of succession planning.
As a family business, the shareholders of Informed Choice Ltd can empathise with this challenge.
The dynamics of most family businesses are very different from those where the shareholders and directors are not related. Culturally they tend to be different.
I am not suggesting that non-family businesses are in any way inferior, just different.
It seems to me that the ‘family’ approach to life leaks over into the business environment and as I commented to someone just this morning maybe that makes the working environment more fun.
Charles Russell LLP, one of the leading UK private client firms, organised a workshop at GLive in Guildford yesterday and invited along a group of professional advisers who deal with the needs of family businesses.
The workshop was attended by Accountants, Solicitors, Property Agents, Financial Advisers, Financial Planners and Wealth Managers; each of these professionals with different services to bring to the board of the family business.
Also speaking at the workshop were some family business owners who told their own stories.
I find it fascinating to learn about the businesses of other people and how they have evolved and prospered over time – more so when those are family businesses.
One key message that came from the session was that the owners of family businesses “don’t know what they don’t know” (I accept that may sound obvious) and it is up to the professional services providers to identify the problems that family firms might be storing up for themselves and come up with suitable solutions.
Empathy is vital; we think that one of the reasons we can relate to a family firm is the very fact that we are one ourselves.
One speaker did though say that in her experience fathers and sons were where most conflict in family firms arose. A bit worrying that, I must pop downstairs and have a chat with Martin!
I am not sure either of us expect a third generation of “Bamfords” to be running Informed Choice Ltd but if that happens here is a sneak preview of what the board might look like in 25 years time!!
