Managing a family business is similar to being the CEO of any business. In both types of business there is a lot of time spent together, plenty of personalities, and everyone has a job to do. It is crucial to manage the relationships because in family business this has a powerful impact on the success of the business.
Whether your family members have a positive or negative demeanor will impact your bottom line. There are many benefits for you to ensure that you have a happy, healthy family business.
The Power of a Positive Attitude
You will have family members at different places in your business. Aunt Sue may work in the back office, your brother John in sales and you sister Sally is the receptionist. Regardless of where your employee is situated, a negative attitude has a trickledown effect.
If Aunt Sue at the back end of the business is bitter or upset, her job is more than likely to suffer. That negativity will eventually seep into other areas of the company. If production is falling short on enthusiasm, you can bet that sales will feel the impact.
Therefore, it is important for you as the manager to hold regular office meetings with office managers of each department. Be sure that each department head is on board with the happiness and health of its employees. This will equate to a productive business model all the way around.
You may have an employee on the other hand that meets and greets your potential clients, sister Sally in the example earlier If Sally is disgruntled, you are almost guaranteed to create a bad impression on behalf of the entire organization. It is essential that all of your family members are happy and heard.
From a sales point of view, it can be difficult at times coming up with new and creative ideas. It may also be difficult to work on commission. It is imperative that sales associates have positive mindsets and are resilient enough to go with the flow. This will have a direct impact on future sales.
The Bottom Line
If you have family members from the back end of the business up to reception and with sales in between that are content, then your bottom line will undoubtedly reflect that, as well. If you think about it for a moment, the majority of your families’ time is spent working in and for the family business. If members are discontent, then this will have a direct impact on your bottom line.
A family business is only as successful as the family members who work in it.
