Smooth transitions

FROM BOSTON BUSINESS JOURNAL

In all these cases, though, owners need to consider a host of complicated legal and accounting issues, such as tax and estate laws and noncompete agreements. Moreover, he said, because many family businesses are small and the owners tend to be close to their employees, owners often put in place protections for their employees. They sometimes even opt to sell the companies directly to the employees through an employee stock ownership plan.

"One thing I tell family businesses all the time is that there are only three things down the end of the road: They're going to sell the business, they're going to have a succession plan or they're going to shut down," said Ted Clark, the executive director of the Northeastern University Center for Family Business.

Clark said owners should evaluate their options from a business perspective that isn't overly clouded by familial issues.

"What we try to help family businesses do is to not think about themselves as a family business but as a business family, so you put the business first, because that helps the family," he said.
He also said he tells families to get professional advisors and counselors experienced in family business dynamics to help keep professional decisions from being unduly influenced by family politics.

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