I had the privilege of participating in a panel discussion recently on the topic of family business ownership. One of the questions posed was: What do my peer family business owners need to know or what concerns do I hear from them? Here is a summary of the answer I provided:

I commonly hear two primary concerns from my peers. One is how do I make the transition to be respected as the leader in charge? Having grown up in the business, many of the employees and new direct reports were employed in the business when they were children and/or began working even the most basic aspects of business operations. Now having come into a position of leadership those that knew us as peers are now under our guidance. I find the most challenging situations are those long tenured employees that remember me as a small child, having seen me grow and develop. It is understandably difficult for them to reconcile their memories of me then to now identify with me in a leadership role. The second concern I hear is how do I run all aspects of a business. It is one thing to understand an element of a family business, it is another to be responsible for all business functions. Having studied engineering in college, I developed my technical expertise and decision making. However, I quickly discovered that it takes not only technical expertise, but business acumen in areas like sales, marketing, staff development, finance, and many more. My solution to this dilemma was to pursue an MBA to round out my educational background and to seek skilled mentors and advisors in areas I lacked expertise. Some of those advisors were employees and some were outside consultants or service providers. Of the two concerns this is definitely scarier and more overwhelming.