There is a huge amount of things you need to think through carefully before starting your business. But probably the most important one is who you’re gonna team up with?
We’re not talking about vendors and investors, but about true business partners that will provide the right support. And where can you find the greater amount of this camaraderie then inside your own family?
No matter, if you want to open a small corner shop or run a large global corporation, members of the family could be your best partners. The fact that the family business makes up 90% of the world’s companies certainly backs this up.
Legal Lessons from Great Family Businesses
On the other hand, we all know how family life can be full of temper, frustration, and disagreement. But that’s all pure energy, isn’t it? And establishing a family business provides you with a legacy that will keep that energy last forever. This is the best way to nurture natural talent, skills, and passion.
The only requirement is to keep this energy under control, or otherwise, you could get into a lot of legal trouble. Especially if your working with in-laws who tend to be dissatisfied with their pay, working conditions, or ‛mistreatment’ of their spouse or relatives.
If you don’t want your blood and relations to stir up trouble you need to learn some legal lessons from the great family businesses that have survived. Learning on your mistakes was never a good thing in a business world, so we’re here to provide a shortcut.
1. Keep Them Posted
There will always be family members who will feel left out. Families are full or rivalry and working together makes it even stronger. But this time that rivalry could drag you to court, so you need to find a way to eliminate it. And the best way to accomplish that is to share information.
It is an inevitable fact that not all family members can be in equal positions – everybody has its set of skills and boundaries. But that doesn’t’ mean they shouldn’t be briefed about everything that’s going on. Your family members are now your partners – their signature is often required, as well as their presence at countless long family meetings.
If they don’t fully understand what’s going on and why they need to perform certain tasks, they won’t put up with this long before they burst. So, keep them posted and you’ll create a working environment where everyone feels equally important.
2. Leave No Man Behind
If your co-working family members don’t have a reason to complain about their mistreatment, they’re very likely to find that reason if some of their relatives were left out of the business.
It is perfectly normal that not every family member can have the ‛brain for business’ but you should think carefully before leaving anyone behind.
Maybe you think that wider family doesn’t count, but there are always people who usually tend to complain to other family members that could be on high and valuable positions. And that’s how you create an enemy that will again lead to legal difficulties.
If you want things to run a smooth as possible, you need to keep your family values intact. This primarily means keeping your family together by getting everyone involved. Of course, that doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice the productivity of a certain work position by hading it out to a family member that doesn’t have the skills to fill it.
You need to assess the risks and benefits and find a corresponding position. If some family member requires a certain position that he could learn to handle, you should require from him to go through a training first.
3. Encourage The Growth
This could seem pretty obvious since the growth is the goal of every business, but when it comes to family ones this growth may be more difficult to achieve.
The main reason lies in the lack of trust, and this mistake can cost you dearly. If you make your family members feel less valuable by regarding them incompetent to take a greater part of the business on themselves they’ll probably want revenge. And the moment you made them into your partners you’ve provided them with the power to – yes – drag you to court.
But it doesn’t have to come to that because your trust issues are a pure fiction. Just take a look around you, only three generations back. Can you believe that you are all one family? Artists, scientists, doctors, technicians, psychologists, hackers… this incredible diversity could create professions that will secure the survival of the business in the future. So why not let them expand?
The fact that your brother is a lazy couch potato at home doesn’t mean he won’t show proper business responsibility. If you’re ready to put your faith in your family, with the right Licensed agents your business could spread overseas in a blink of an eye.
It’s not just that your business will be blooming, but you’ll provide your family members with desired independence. And if there are those who can’t stand each other, you could simply provide them with positions hundreds of kilometers apart.
When it comes to family members, they would lead every argument to the court if they could. Sharing the blood always makes things more personal. And if you turn them to your business partners you provide them with the power to do that.
You only have to realize that some arguments are good ones and that it’s equally important to listen as it is to speak. Don’t leave anyone behind or in the dark, and believe in their capabilities. Once your family members are provided with their independence and your trust, there won’t be any need for disputes, at least not for the ones of the legal kind.
Author: Nick Brown
