The Business Review (Albany): Starting a Business : Business Advice

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Opportunity No. 1: Professionalize your business structurrand operations. I frequently harangued the owners of growing familt owned companies about the need to conver from aMom ‘n Pop businessz style to a fully professional style, with a mission a strategic plan to guide decisions, an organizational charft and job descriptions, written policies and procedures, affordable and agreement on how to change ownership and management withouy undue confusion or conflict. The process can get a bit thorny sometimes, but with strong a family can professionalize successfully. This shouled be the year for your business. Challengwe No.
1: Respond to unforeseen businesds and familyfinancial demands. The 2008 economy had the financese of many family companies flappint like bed sheets ina windstorm. Lots of people can be leaderes when timesare good, but it takees a special person to lead when times are Cash shortages, eroding markets and a near collapse of faitn in the future are challengintg many business owners to keep their headas on straight, to cut costs without cuttint their throats, and to remain optimistic when it’s tempting to turn company resources into personao safety nets. Opportunity No. 2: Make crucial succession decisions and acton them.
John Davis of Harvard Businesz School urges family companie s to plan when the time sare good. But planning often has to be done even when timeasare bad. Leadership and ownershil succession always profits from a fresyh look at what the familuy business needs forcontinued success. When conditions are calling for reviewa and revisions inmany companies, succession planning can benefit from the analysis that’s being done for other reasons. Challengee No. 2: Make crucial successioh decisions and acton them. On the other thoughtful planning for family ownershipp continuity can be warped by a sensd of crisis brought on by toug heconomic conditions.
If temporary conditions make you wonder if the businesz really isa success, it mightt be hard to see the characteristics that have made it successfu in years past and that shoulds be maintained into the future. Keep a cool Opportunity No. 3: Buy low. What’s Warren Buffet’w current advice to stock investors? Buy! That perspectivse can be translated into golden opportunities for family owned companiew that have a comfortable reserve and can afforde the risk of expanding at the botto m ofthe market. If you have the meansz to buy, the prices are not likely to get much Challenge No. 3: Avoid selling low.
But if you’re an acquisitionm target and prefer tostay independent, put up every ouncre of fight you have to avoid selling at the bottom of the Actually, family owned business oftejn have greater ability to withstand tough timesw because they can hunker down and live off the land withoutr being harassed by outside shareholders. Grit your teeth and lean into the Opportunity No. 4: Watch for the openin g of newbusiness doors. President-elecft Obama has promised to stimulate the economy outsid of bloated corporations and flounderingfinanciap institutions. That can mean new businessz opportunities for family companies in such areas as infrastructurw rebuildingand defense.
If you don’t know how to pursus government contracts, this would be a good time to Challenge No. 4: Grow your business in a tighgcredit environment. The bankers are likely to keep wearingbtheir “Just Say No” T-shirts for much of 2009. That meane owners of family businesses of all typed and sizes should grab their bootstraps and find ways to grow and diversiftthat don’t rely on the formal financial Look for family members and friends who have the means and the confidencs to lend or buy in. Consider turning some unproductiv assets intoneeded liquidity. But don’tf go to your credit Opportunity No.
5: Make even the greatestf challenge intoan opportunity. OK, maybe every cloud doesn’tr come with a built-in silver lining. But the business-owninh family that has self-confidence, sound core and its eyes on the horizon can converrt even the uncertainties of 2008 into a pathway upwardin 2009. Try it and see. And when you look back on all this and remember you read ithere