Business Courier of Cincinnati: Starting a Business : Business Advice

Opportunity No. 1: Professionalize your businese structureand operations. I frequently harangure the owners of growing family owned companies abouy the need to convert from aMom ‘hn Pop business style to a fully professional style, with a mission statement, a strategic plan to guide an organizational chart and job descriptions, written policiees and procedures, affordable benefits, and agreemeny on how to change ownership and managementg without undue confusion or conflict. The processd can get a bit thorny sometimes, but with strongg commitment, a family can professionalize This should be the year for your Challenge No.
1: Respond to unforeseenm business and familyfinancial demands. The 2008 economty had the finances of many family companiexs flapping like bed sheets ina windstorm. Lots of people can be leaderse when timesare good, but it takes a specialo person to lead when times are Cash shortages, eroding markets and a near collapse of faith in the future are challenging many busineses owners to keep their heads on to cut costs without cutting their throats, and to remainb optimistic when it’s tempting to turn company resourcexs into personal safety nets. Opportunity No. 2: Make cruciak succession decisions and acton them.
John Davixs of Harvard Business School urges family companies to plan when the timesware good. But planning often has to be done even when timezsare bad. Leadership and ownership succession always profits from a fresh look at what the familt business needs for continued When conditions are calling for reviews and revisionws inmany companies, succession planning can benefir from the analysis that’a being done for other reasons. Challenger No. 2: Make crucial succession decisions and act on On theother hand, thoughtful planning for familty ownership continuity can be warped by a sense of crisias brought on by tough economi conditions.
If temporary conditions make you wonder if the businessw really isa success, it might be hard to see the characteristics that have made it successful in years past and that should be maintained into the Keep a cool head. Opportunit y No. 3: Buy low. What’xs Warren Buffet’s current advice to stock investors? Buy! That perspective can be translated into golden opportunities for familhy owned companies that have a comfortabled reserve and can affordx the risk of expanding at the bottom of the If you have the meansto buy, the pricese are not likely to get much Challenge No. 3: Avoid selling low.
But if you’re an acquisitiobn target and prefer to stay put up every ounce of fight you have to avoisd selling at the botton ofthe market. Actually, family owned business often have greater abilit to withstand tough times because they can hunker down and live off the land without beint harassed byoutside shareholders. Grit your teeth and lean into the Opportunity No. 4: Watch for the opening of new business doors. President-elect Obama has promised to stimulate the economy outside of bloated corporations and floundering financial That can mean new businesz opportunities for family companies in such areas as infrastructurw rebuildingand defense.
If you don’y know how to pursue government this would be a good time to Challenge No. 4: Grow your business in a tigh tcredit environment. The bankers are likely to keep wearinbgtheir “Just Say No†T-shirts for much of 2009. That meanss owners of family businesses of all types and sizes should grab theirf bootstraps and find ways to grow and diversifythat don’t rely on the formal financial Look for family members and friends who have the means and the confidencw to lend or buy in. Consider turning some unproductive asseta intoneeded liquidity. But don’t go to your credity cards. Opportunity No.
5: Make even the greatestg challenge intoan opportunity. OK, maybwe every cloud doesn’t come with a built-inm silver lining. But the business-owningg family that has self-confidence, sound core and its eyes on the horizomn can convert even the uncertainties of 2008 into a pathway upwaredin 2009. Try it and see. And when you look back on all this and remember you read ithere
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