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Family Business Articles
Family Business Quotes
I'm serious when I do my work. I'm not serious when I'm home with my kids. Bill Gates
You can't overestimate the need to plan and prepare. In most of the mistakes I've made, there has been this common theme of inadequate planning beforehand. You really can't over-prepare in business! Chris Corrigan
They talk about how hard coaches work. They work 18, 20 hours a day. They sleep on a couch. They don't come home. You know, that's not the hard job. The hard job is a coach's wife, believe me. The job of the coach's wife, she has to be mother, father, driver, doctor, nurse, coach, everything, because the coach is out there working. John Madden
| Strengthening Family Business Campaign CLICK here for more information |
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-----------------Event Calendar for PFBA---------------
September
- 26 Rapid City Event - Annual Legacy Tour and Tom Didier Excellence in Family Business Award Tour @ Reptile Gardens. Award presented to ISIS Hospitality - Bradsky Family
- 20 Watertown Award - Codington-Clark Equipment
- 21 Webinar- "Effective Strategies for Avoiding and Managing Conflict " Varies Locations
October
- 10 Sioux Falls Event -Annual Legacy Tour and Boyd Hopkins Sr. Excellence in Family Business Award @ Dakota Dunes with a tour of Malloy Electric. Award presented to Soukup Construction.
- 18 Hill City Award- Krull's Market
November
- 3 Pierre Award
- 10 Webinar "HR Practices: Building Policies From our Values"
- 13 Platte Award
2012 ~SAVE THE DATE~
- March 29-30 Annual Conference in Sioux Falls
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New Members:
Pinnacle Wealth Management
- Sioux Falls, SD
Harlow's Bus Service & Sales - Bismarck, ND
Hedahl's, Inc
- Bismarck, ND
Mariner Construction - Bismarck, ND
Jim Didier - Rapid City, SD
Bimarck Aero Center - Bismarck, ND
Canfield Companies - Sioux Falls, SD
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Marriage Strains: Business Conflicts and Long Hours
Everybody who works long hours knows what it's like - you come home exhausted at the end of the day and all you want to do is eat and sleep.
If you're married or in a long term relationship, this can leave your partner feeling frustrated or even angry. You can end up shouting at each other when what you both really need is mutual support. Now imagine coping with this in a situation where you're both working for the same family business, and you'll see how things can become very difficult indeed. If you're planning to go into business with your other half, you'll need to work on devising suitable coping strategies, or your relationship could face more strain than it can cope with.
Same Business, Different Roles
It does not matter how much people love each other, spending too much time together can often make a marriage suffer. If you're working in the same business as your partner, it's usually a good idea to take on roles that keep you apart for most of the working day - perhaps in different offices or with one of you spending a lot of time out and about. Not only will this stop you from feeling suffocated and stop you from wasting time chatting to each other, it will also give you something to talk to about with each other at the end of the day (instead of knowing all of one another's news already).
Working in different types of roles also gives each of you a different perspective on the business - and if one of you is in a management role, and the other is in sales, they may well find that feedback from your partner is very useful in making sure that the business runs smoothly at all levels. However, being bossed about by your other half can lead to resentment and can too easily spill over into domestic life, so if possible avoid situations in which one of you is directly answerable to the other.
Managing Home Life
When you've finished a hard day's work in the family business it's hard to apply yourself to getting the housework done and preparing a hot meal. Even if you agree to take turns, you may often come to resent it, and you may find that your domestic habitat deteriorates. It can be easy to start getting angry with each other about this. Stop. It's time to take stock and to realize that you're not the cause of one another's stress - work is. Sometimes it helps to blow off steam about work together or to make jokes about it. Just remember that you're on the same side. If housework gets you down, consider having a cleaner come in just once or twice a week. This is more affordable than you might think and it can make a big difference to your quality of life. You'll then know that if you don't manage to get something done things won't just go on getting worse. Try not to expect too much of each other after work. If exhaustion is taking its toll on your love life, just make sure to spend some time cuddling and relaxing together. Try non-strenuous hobbies like reading or watching TV, which will also give you non work-related things to talk about.
Time Out
Getting a family business going or recovering often means working six or even seven days a week, getting time off can be difficult - and, because you may be required at different times, getting time off together can be even more so. It's important that you stress from the outset that you cannot both make a full time commitment to the family business unless this is understood to be a problem and your shifts are coordinated. Even just one afternoon a week to spend together can make a big difference. Plan to spend time together then and don't let anything else get in the way. If you work from home, consider going somewhere else in order to create proper psychological distance, even if this just means a walk in the park or a visit to a favorite restaurant. If, despite all this, you feel that the business is putting more strain on your relationship than you can handle, consider seeing a marriage guidance counselor. It's the marriage guidance counselor's job to try and help you stay together no matter the circumstances of your relationship and no matter the problems you're facing. You won't just be told to give up on the business - you'll be assisted in developing practical coping strategies. In the long term, if you can make it work, you'll have a thriving business as a testament to the strength of your relationship.
Article by uk Family Business journal
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Motivating Outside Employees in a Family Business
 Motivating employees is never a simple matter, but it's usually easier in a family business, where everyone can clearly see the potential rewards for hard work. However, outside employees in a family business have no such motivation and can often feel excluded. How can you provide inspiration and motivate them to work hard?
Short Term Rewards
Family members working together in their own business tend to be motivated by the awareness that their work will improve the family's situation in the long term. An outside employee however will enjoy no part of that reward and may not even expect to be with the business for a long period of time. Supplying suitable short term rewards thus becomes more important.Short term rewards can come in many different forms, from cash bonuses, to time off, to permission to dress differently at work. The important thing to remember when you're providing opportunities for your outside employees to earn these rewards is that you should include family members from the scheme - even if they do have other rewards to look forward to down the road- because it's important that all your employees should feel they have equal status and are part of the same team.
Workplace Atmosphere
For most people, one of the most important factors about any job is the atmosphere in the workplace. In a family business this is often more relaxed than usual, but outside employees can feel awkward and excluded, spoiling the atmosphere for everyone. Making an effort to include your outside employees in social activities and to welcome them as part of the team can make a big difference to their motivation. Something of greater immediate importance than making them feel as positive about the business as the family members do, is making them feel more positive about it than they do about other places where they've worked. If they find the atmosphere relaxed and friendly and feel they're appreciated, they're more likely to work hard and to stay.
Promotional Prospects
Outside employees in family businesses often report that they are unhappy because they feel they have no promotional prospects, and so they don't see much point in working hard. Many feel that there will always be a family member who will be chosen for a senior position before they are even considered.
In a small business there are often few promotional prospects for anybody, though you can go some way towards alleviating the problems this causes by giving people impressive job titles and distributing responsibilities such that they will have something good to add to their CV's. If the business is expanding however it's important to give outside employees serious and equal consideration for emerging senior roles.
Outside employees need to be able to have faith that you will choose the occupants of new posts according to merit, not just on the basis of family allegiance. If they see promotion as a realistic prospect they will have a real reason to try and impress you. This will have the added benefit of making family members work harder to compete.
Article by uk Family Business Journal
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Minimizing Domestic Distractions During Working At Home
 One of the problems with working from home is that you can never entirely get away from the pressures of your domestic environment - or the temptations. This can be even more difficult in a family business when, even if you strictly separate your workspace, you're likely to be sharing it with other people who share your domestic life. As well as developing good self-discipline, you'll need to make other people understand that your work hours are for work alone.
Don't Take It With You
The first step toward keeping domestic distractions out of your workspace is to avoid taking them in there with you. This doesn't just mean finishing your breakfast and dealing with urgent domestic tasks before you sit down to begin the working day - it means leaving domestic conversations and disputes behind, too.
Depending on the work you're doing, radios can be acceptable in the workplace - televisions less so - but only if they function as providers of background noise. Don't listen to programs you'll get excited about or want to argue with, and don't listen to programs you would normally enjoy at home. It's important to leave behind not only domestic items and behaviors but also,as far as possible, domestic thoughts. This will help to get you into the right mind set for work.
House Rules
When you work from home, everybody within your home needs to understand the importance of your work. Excepting the sort of emergencies where they'd call you if you were working for an employer elsewhere, they shouldn't be bothering you with domestic matters during your working day.
If other people in your household want to be helpful, it's quite reasonable for them to bring you cups of coffee and empty your rubbish bins whilst you work, but they'll need to understand that they shouldn't engage you in conversation, even if you break your own rules and start it. The times when your self-discipline wavers are the times when it's most important for your family to remind you that you need to apply yourself to work during working hours.
Cutting Out Calls
Even if you've successfully established an understanding about the separate nature of work hours within your home, it can be difficult to get this message across to other relatives and to friends. Personal phone calls can be a troublesome distraction when you're trying to concentrate on work, and visits can be even worse.
It's important to explain to callers that you simply cannot take time out for social communications during your work hours. They may take this badly at first, interpreting it as a personal rejection, so you'll need to be patient and consistent. Explain that just because you set your own hours doesn't mean you can keep changing them, nor does it mean that you can take time out in the middle of a project.
What you need to make clear to callers is that your business is no less serious because it's a family business or because it's based in your home. Point out that they would probably feel the need to object if you walked into their workplaces and expected to be able to have a chat.
Eyes On The Prize
If you sometimes find it difficult to concentrate on work when you know that domestic chores, and pleasures, are just a moment's walk away, focus on what you are working for. If it helps, think about the ways in which making money from your family business can be expected to improve your domestic life. Remind yourself that putting work first now means you're putting your family first in the big scheme of things.
Article by uk Family Business journal
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The Board of Directors - Best Practices - Part 1
 I have had several questions lately about the responsibilities of Boards of Directors and whether there are ways to assess and improve Board effectiveness. In fact, Board effectiveness is one of the most important best practices an organization can undertake; just because a group of people have come together with a common purpose, often with community involvement and altruism in their minds and hearts, does not mean a Board of Directors will automatically run smoothly. In fact, any time you bring human beings together as a team means there will be sticky issues and competing interests and attitudes. Just like the teams working in an organization, Boards of Directors must be nurtured if they are to run smoothly.
What is a Board of Directors?
Boards of Directors have many responsibilities and obligations. They are not typically part of an organization's daily management, but they are the highest management tier of an organization and oversee all activities from a governance standpoint. The chief purpose of a Board is to ensure that activities are conducted in the best interests of stakeholders, including the public and clients.
What does a Board do?
Although Boards can vary widely in their approach and policies around their responsibilities, they typically have 6 main functions, briefly:
1) Finance/Resource Management: Board responsibilities typically include overseeing the organization's financial situation including the budget, in order to ensure stability and viability. This can also include ensuring that the organization has adequate resources and ensuring effective resource management.
2) Organizational Culture and Effectiveness: A Board must ensure the organization is performing as effectively as it can. A Board must also keep a finger on the culture of the organization and ensure that it is kept in line with organizational values and ideals. This includes, but is even more broad than HR, succession planning, and talent management. It is tied to achieving the organization's mission and upholding its core values. Furthermore, Boards of Directors are typically governance-based as opposed to operations-based. This means that while they keep a finger on the culture of the organization, they do not 'interfere' in organizational operations unless it is specifically their mandate to do so (or when their Executive Director/ CEO / President is unfortunately not doing this effectively).
3) Management of the CEO: Boards of Directors typically have an HR responsibility only in terms of the top executive, not other employees. This includes recruiting, hiring, and managing the CEO's performance. The Board of Directors employs the CEO and is responsible for his or her performance and development. The relationship between the Board and CEO is an important one, and the CEO is typically an ex officio member of the Board with slightly different voting privileges.
4) Strategic Planning and Growth: A Board of Directors must participate in, oversee, and to some extent drive strategic organizational development, whether this means growth or something else.
5) Stewardship and Advocacy: The Board is responsible for advocating for the organization and communicating with the public. This responsibility may be shared with others in the organization such as the CEO, but it is a major Board function.
6) Board Effectiveness: Often forgotten in descriptions of Board responsibilities, Boards of Directors must engage in self-management, actively building and maintaining an effective Board of Directors, something that may be implicit in its policies, but can be taken for granted. This means developing and maintaining a Board profile that is suitable to the organization, ensuring that Board members are meeting their obligations effectively, and conducting an annual Board performance evaluation, to name but a few details of this responsibility.
Article by Dr Jessica Sartori-- Dr. Sartori is a Change Management consultant. With a PhD in Applied Social Psychology, she has been consulting for ten years. Other Ezine@ articles by the author
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Member Highlight
Egger Family From Egger Steel
2010 Prairie Family Business of the Year
Watch the Video from the conference.
CLICK HERE |
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Corporate Sponsors
Avera is the region’s largest health system with more than 238 locations and more than 13,100 employees and physicians to serve you. Avera also offers workforce health solutions to meet the needs of area employers. From employee benefit programs such as health, life, disability, vision, and dental insurance to occupational medicine programs, Avera offers the very best in customized wellness benefits for your organization. Additionally, Avera’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) helps build a healthy work team within the family business. Look no further to meet the needs of your business and employees. Contact Steve Statz, senior vice president of Business Development at (605) 322-4773 for more information on Avera or see www.avera.org
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Helping customers and communities succeed is the focus of the BankWest team. Because we’re a privately-owned organization, our management team is free to make decisions based on long-term values rather than short-term profits. We take pride in hiring the best of the best and equipping them with the products, technology and training to deliver the highest level of customer care. Our product menu includes a full range of personal and business banking products, as well as insurance, investment and trust services. For contact information call Kristin Brost at 605-224-7391 or visit the website at www.bankwest-sd.com. |
 Based in Aberdeen, SD, Dacotah Bank’s banking assets exceed $1.5 billion dollars making it one of the largest independent banks in the upper Midwest. With 35 locations in hometowns throughout North Dakota and South Dakota, Dacotah Bank employs over 500 people and serves over 50,000 customers with banking, insurance, mortgage, and trust services. For more information about Dacotah Bank, please call 800-881-5611 or visit dacotahbank.com.
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 The University of South Dakota Beacom School of Business, established in 1927, is the only business program in South Dakota accredited the same as Harvard, Stanford and Columbia, having been continuously accredited since 1949 by AACSB International. Our graduates have become global leaders in such fields as accounting, technology and finance. The generosity of our alumni and support from other friends of the School allow us to provide scholarships in excess of $200,000 annually to our students. Princeton Review just named the Beacom in the top 3% of business programs in America. Call 605-677-5455 for more information. www.usd.edu.
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