Successful family-owned businesses and especially those that have multi-generations of family members working together in a family understand it’s NOT the decisions they make together, the values they choose together, and the accomplishments they make together…that carry the most weight.

As one of my favorite client's like to say, "The food tastes so much better when everyone helps make it.".

True.

​Because process is so important, successful families sometimes make the assumption that whatever policies or statements they create today can be changed three years or five years or a generation from now.  Some families believe that policies should have sunset clauses, perhaps extinguishing them every generation. They tell the next generation, sometimes in a preamble, “These policies are important to us and work for us, but if you just embrace them as they are, you will miss the most important part: going through the process of creating your own.”

Until next time…

You own a family business, or you’re part of a family business.  Maybe you’re the founder or one of the presumed successors.  Wanting the family business to grow and prosper, and hopefully thrive into future generations, are natural wishes and dreams.  Reality and history show us that not many family companies survive for generations…both from a pure business perspective and because families don’t always maintain unity and support.  Long-term success with family-owned businesses is rare and is generally the reward for those business leaders that understand the odds are stacked against them and take proactive measures to help ensure long-term sustainability.

The last few weeks have been lessons from the field.

• Get Out of Your Comfort Zone 
• Small Equals Big

This final installment continues with some general pearls of wisdom, themes and lessons we’ve observed from many forward-thinking, successful family farm businesses.

The top performers in most every agricultural business sector generally Walk The Talk.  Whereas low performers tend to just talk the talk…as in...Big Hat, No Cattle.  

A few weeks ago, the Get Out of Your Comfort Zone article shared some general themes and lessons we’ve observed from many forward-thinking, successful family farm businesses.  This week continues with more thought-provoking examples.

 The roller-coaster ride of business ownership provides many chances to learn how to bounce off the lows in your business cycles, which is just as important as profits.  Maximizing profits during cycle highs is just as important as minimizing losses during low cycles. 

Over the years and with enough observation, general themes become apparent can become learning lessons for your family farm.  Striving for continuous improvement is the dominant characterization of most financially and organizationally successful companies.  Consider the following thoughts and standards and see how you and your family-owned business compare.

If a horse is running a race by itself, it will win every time. Unfortunately, your business is anything but a single-horse race, and even a personal-best doesn’t necessarily lead to long-term sustainability.  In every industry, there are many other horses (i.e. competitors) and globalization will only increase your competition in future races.

Succession Planning, or Transition Planning, can be simply defined as the orderly process of transferring responsibility, management and ownership from one generation to the next.  Our experience working with business-owning families reveals that the order in which each of these separate transfers take place is a crucial element in a successful transition.  

Attempting to do things in the wrong order, or even accidentally doing things in the wrong order, usually results in disruption and spoiled family and business relationships.