Growth Newsletter

By Friday afternoon this week, I’d guess that most of Australia will be shutting down. For a lot of family businesses, there is little use heading in on Monday the 24th, unless of course your business is providing an essential service.

In my 30 years of working with family businesses, my experience is that most owners and managers care a lot for their staff. There are very few Scrooges that I’ve come across in my career, and very few tyrants. Quite often it’s the opposite. 

One of the most fascinating observations I make in my work with family businesses is the dynamic that is at play between husbands and wives inside those businesses.

In last week’s edition 147 of Growth (It’s Only $1.50), I referenced the financial impact in a family business of undercharging in error – not only from a lost profit perspective, but also from the viewpoint of the impact on business valuation.

I have a client on Sydney’s Northern Beaches that I visit quite regularly. My routine is to hop in the car early to beat the traffic, then stop off at this fabulous patisserie on the lower North Shore, three quarters of the way through my journey. My wife doesn’t know (well, she does now!), however, they do the best small quiche lorraine for breakfast that is magic.

I’ve recently starting working with some new clients who are also new to family business. I often talk about the fact that most people start in business between the ages of 30 and 45 – right at the time of life when they’re getting married, buying their first home together and starting a family. This couple fit the template to a tee!

I love trawling the vault of my iPod and hitting repeat on some great, older tunes. One of my faves at the moment is the Rolling Stones classic, Gimme Shelter, first released the year after my birth.

For over 30 years, I’ve worked with and alongside a wide variety of family businesses. For almost that entire time, I’ve never heard anyone say “I’ve got plenty of free time on my hands” if their business is profitable, successful and growing.

Have you ever been around businesses or individuals that keep promising, but aren’t delivering? It can be frustrating and forever disappointing if you’re the one being told. If you’re the one doing the telling, it can be a recipe for disaster. Let me explain.

Family business quite often has an interesting dynamic at play when it comes to spouses working with each other.

Sometimes, it is the way they talk to each other, something I addressed in Growth Edition 24, The Language of Family Business.