Category Archives: General
Advisory Board for Family Business: Top 10 Tips
Here are my top 1o personal tips for assembling an advisory board for a family business: 1. An advisory board makes a CEO or family business successor answerable and accountable to a third party. 2. Unlike a board of directors, advisory board … Continue reading
2011 Washington Family Business Award Winners
Seattle Business Magazine hosted a fabulous awards dinner and ceremony on November 3, 2011 to honor the recipients of the 2011 Washington Family Business Awards at the Columbia Tower Club in Seattle. This was the 2nd annual awards ceremony to … Continue reading
Family Business Statistics in the US
Here are some interesting facts about family business in the US: Approximately 90% of U.S. businesses are family owned. They range in size from small “mom-n-pop” businesses to the likes of Walmart, Ford, Mars and Marriott. Family businesses employ 62% … Continue reading
Solving the Family Business Owner’s Retirement Dilemma
There’s a fatal flaw in the retirement of many small business owners: After pouring a lifetime of sweat, time and capital into building the business, their rough-sketch strategy is to sell out someday for a ton of money… then settle … Continue reading
The Boss’s Daughter
Women have made enormous progress in the workforce since the Equal Pay Act of 1963, but the stubborn fact remains that four-and-a-half decades later the basic goal of the act has not been realized. The wage gap has narrowed, but … Continue reading
5 New Tax Law Changes Made Simple
Here is an update from our December Lunch & Learn session regarding possible yearend tax implications for owners of closely held businesses. Since a number of tax issues were settled at the last minute by extending the Bush tax cuts, … Continue reading
The Saga of the Usher Family Business
As a spark for discussion at our Northwest Family Business Advisors (NWFBA) meetings, one of the local accounting firms, Bader Martin, has done a great job by producing the Usher Family Business Saga in annual video installments. Just like in … Continue reading
3 Leadership Lessons from Alan Mulally
After 37 years at Boeing and being passed over for the CEO position twice, Alan Mulally decided to take a call from Bill Ford, at the time the head of the Ford Motor Company and the Ford Family Foundation. That … Continue reading
3 Reasons Why Family Business is Complicated
Family businesses operate at the intersection of 3 circles. Different individuals have different motivations and power in each circle. If you are the founder, you at the middle of this univeserse and have your foot firmly planted in each … Continue reading