As a counselor for the Utah Small Business Development Center network, I work with many family businesses.  So, when the following “top ten list” it caught my attention.  Lucy Meyring, who operates the Meyring Livestock Co., a fifth generation ranch in Colorado’s North Park, says that there are 10 main things that family members do to break up the family business.

Here they are:

1. Assume all genetic relationships equal good working relationships.
2. Believe the business can financially support any and all family members who want to join.
3. Assume everyone involved is willing to make changes.
4. Presume that a conversation is a contract.
5. Believe that mind reading is an acceptable form of communication.
6. Fail to build communication skills and business/family meeting tools when times are good.
7. Ignore the in-laws, off-site family and employees.
8. Forget to use common courtesy.
9. Have no discussion about, and no legal management transfer plan or buy-sell agreement.
10. Fail to celebrate.

Now, how about the things functional family businesses (as opposed to dysfunctional family businesses) do to succeed!  We can see from the list above what to do if we want to fail… please share your comments below about keys to family business success!

Today my wife is bottling salsa.  This year our little garden has done well.  There's nothing like a BLT sandwich with fresh tomatoes and lettuce (no, I don't raise pigs - I go to the store for that).  Although our tomatoes have done well, she needed a few more than were ripe in our garden.  So, I stopped by the local fresh produce stand, Harward Farms. 

They operate a well-run business that has developed and maintained a great reputation throughout the local region they serve.  As she was carefully moving my purchase from the display basket to a box I asked Traci, their cheerful produce stand operator, if the people who started the venture were still around. 

I was delighted to here that Jake and Lenny began operating the produce stand business when they were just youngsters after their father gave them charge of a small piece of farmland.  Two generations earlier their grandfather had started Harward farms, but now their once-little produce division has expanded to nearly thirty roadside stands throughout Utah.

Lesson: Start young.  I love this lesson.  I started a business when I was 15 years old and was dabbling in entrepreneurial ventures even before then.  I work a lot with businesses in remote, rural communities and have learned that long-term, stable growth typically comes from within - meaning local startups.  The key: teach kids (beginning in elementary school) to value innovation and entrepreneurship.  Of course, it also doesn't hurt if they know how to work.

Lesson two: Business models are adaptable.  With the right business model, even as other family farm operations are threatened by the move to large-scale, commodity-style production, the small agriculture business can thrive.

Congratulations Haward Farms!