Family Businesses – What Happens When You Sell?
What happens to the rest the family in your business if you decide to sell? I just talked to a Baby Boomer who is selling his business. His son and daughter-in-law both work in the business, and he’s wondering how he’s going to tell his family that he’s selling, and how they will deal with the sale. He has a buyer already, and the buyer doesn’t want the family members to stay.
What a mess! Family businesses are difficult in the best of times. The man’s story brought back some memories. I can tell you about them first-hand. For 5 years I worked in my ex-husband’s small business, along with his brother and sister-in-law and his mother. Problems in a small business come from a variety of sources:
Differences of Opinion. Take a small business like the one I was in. My ex-husband, his brother, and I all had strong opinions. In a non-family business, there would be a clear hierarchy and the boss would be the
Difficulty in Disciplining/Reviewing Employees. Try telling your mother she’s not doing a good job. Or your sister-in-law, who wants to just talk to her family instead of working. And forget about firing a family member.
Problems with Changes. In an ideal situation, the family would make a joint decision about changes. If the leader of the family would call everyone together and let them know and they would discuss what would happen and whether each of them would stay or leave the business. Maybe the family would decide to buy the business from the leader of the family.
Not telling the family is crazy. I realize that the buyer has the right not to take all the family members when he buys the business. In the business I was in, we sold and moved, but my brother-in-law and his wife stayed with the business, at the new owner’s request. Since I was asked my opinion, I told the owner to get his family together and tell them. The sooner the better. What would you do? What advice would you