Family business expectations

When developing expectations, it's critical to separate family relations from business realities. Take off your family hat and focus intently on the business. An entirely different set of expectations should shape your thinking and behavior - expectations you may not even have been aware of previously. For example:

1. Your business has accountability beyond the family, to its employees, customers, suppliers, creditors and community.

2. Businesses rise and fall on the basis of numbers: productivity, sales inventory, market share, profitability.

3. The selection and promotion of personnel in a successful business is based on competence, not relations.

4. Successful companies are adaptive, constantly changing to meet the needs of the marketplace and the competition.