Attention Family Business Owners

·To continue running your business successfully when you are no longer involved, it may be better to make the underperforming family member who is destined to run the company a shareholder, and to let a non -family member run the company.

·The environment in which your company has operated for the last decade or two has changed substantially. The next company leader should have the skill to take the company where it needs to go as opposed to where it’s been.

·If the sibling warfare when the founder leaves is going to be severe and an outsider’s  chance to run the business is minimal, then it’s better to sell the company than run it into the ground.

·If you as the Founder have a “Tell” management style, and you have a need to impose your will onto others, then know that you have a weak management team below you. The real achievers would not have put up with your behavior and would have left. An astute buyer will ask what he is buying if you are not there, so if you want to sell and make a decent profit, start training the right successor.

·Don’t make the family accountant the new company leader. The supporting role is what accountants do well and need to continue doing.

·Inevitably, the successor to the Founder will have less detailed knowledge about the minute aspects of the business, but business acumen combined with financial management savvy is probably what the company needs most for the next stage.

·Your business will only be as good as the people running it. Remember this and if you want the best for the business, seek out the best people, motivate and keep them.

·Get the paperwork and the planning in order. What happens if the founder suddenly dies? Who is the interim leader and for how long? What happens if a family member who is part of the business becomes divorced-how does this affect the assets of the business? How does the founder’s estate plan affect the business?

·Start opening up communication channels at the business itself. At home the Founder is usually the leader of the family, and what he says goes. At work, you the Founder, may have to start listening to better ideas than your own.

·If a family member wants to join the family business, make it a rule that they first work for someone else for at least ten years. This will help them mature and it will also help non family members better accept their potential future boss.

The first thing Bernard Kirk tells his clients is that the absolute critical factor in any business is people.

With seventeen years of operational management, twenty two years of strategy implementation for multiple entrepreneurs, professionals and high level businesses across the globe, Bernard is an expert in how people affect outcomes.

Having the right people doing the right things in the right job, is usually the difference between mediocrity and greatness for both the individual and the organization. Bernard’s methods of determining what needs to be done by what type of person and how to select and retain those persons has attracted interest on an international basis. Bernard has consulted in the retail, hospitality, manufacturing, medical, recycling professional and academic fields. He lives in Arizona, USA.