Family Business
Keeping it in the Family
Building a successful family business is a great achievement. The majority of family business founders would probably envisage their businesses staying in the family following their retirement.
Most would probably want to see their children or other close relatives building on what they have accomplished and continuing the success they have worked so hard for.
Survival of the Fittest
You may be surprised to hear that the reality can be a little different. As many as 75% of successful first-generation family businesses do not prosper or survive into the second generation and less than 15% still thrive at third generation level.
How do you avoid yours being one of the family businesses which do not survive? The answer is that professional, legal advice can make all the difference.
Succession - The Issues
Family businesses are unique, with their own unique problems and challenges. Many of your decisions involve a complex mix of emotion, practicalities and technical expertise.
One of the main decisions that inevitably arises is about when to integrate your family into the business and who might be the best family member to run it.
For example, you might find it beneficial to involve your children in the business while you are there, so that by the time you retire, they are already well acquainted with its operations.
Another important decision is about how best to manage shareholder issues. ln private companies, shares represent ownership, not management. Directors need not be shareholders and shareholders need not necessarily be directors.
You might therefore find it advantageous to appoint non family into the management, as directors, as they can often introduce skills and experience that may be extremely valuable for the future of your company.
How We Can Help
As the driving force of your business, you are necessarily very close to every aspect that makes it what it is. Its success is all down to your vision.
However, that very closeness and involvement can often benefit from an injection of external guidance, impartial and objective viewpoints and a skill-set which might not be available within your business.
At A & W M Urquhart, we can provide that valuable assistance and advice on the kind of decisions you need to take for the successful future of your company.
With our 130 years plus of experience, across a broad range of business sectors and sizes, we can foresee the typical issues that will arise within your family business. We also have a genuine understanding of the problems and solutions that our clients need to discuss with us.
An Exit Route
If, as the entrepreneur who has developed a successful sole-trader of family business, you have weighed up the options, hopefully in consultation with your family members, but have reached the decision that it is better for the business, your staff and your customers for the business to continue beyond your retirement but without direct continuing family involvement, you (and your Accountants, no doubt) will be thinking along the lines of finding an exit route. You may wish to sell the business that you have committed your time and fortune to building up over the years, in which case you will need advice about whether, if your business is run as a limited company, you should sell your shares in the company – (a share sale) – or whether to sell the business, as such, including business assets – (an assets sale). In either case, you need to be aware of the protections that both the Law and you as the entrepreneur who has built up the business can provide to your workforce in the run up to and aftermath of the disposal of the business or of the company.
Our Approach
We have always been forward thinking and we take care and pride in ensuring you receive the most informed advice and guidance we can provide.
Our knowledge of and involvement in family business matters is extensive and developed both from active participation in specialist learning on a national and international level and from the experience within A & W M Urquhart and our policy of facilitating exchange of knowledge within the Firm. Internationally, our links through TORUS International Consultants Association keep us in frequent and face to face touch with specialist Lawyers, Accountants and business advisors throughout the United Kingdom, in the Republic of Ireland and in other European countries.
TORUS – www.torus.org
Come In and See Us
We realise that your need for a meeting may be urgent and you can be sure that your appointment will be set up without delay. Our offices are conveniently based near the centre of Edinburgh, at 16 Heriot Row and clients are most welcome to make use of our parking facilities immediately to the rear of the building.
