Rules Can Keep Your Family Business and Family Together

intellectual challenges of business along with its financial rewards. How do you successfully transfer your family business within your family? It can be a tricky situation. One successful trick that CNNMoney recently highlighted is the power of rules. The article, titled “Family business: How to pass the baton,” is a story about the Mitchell family and the rules they developed to keep their family, as well as their business, intact. As the article illustrates, rules are a way of promising to yourself and future generations that you’ll maintain a strong shareholder’s agreement, operating agreement, or other founding document of the business itself. So, what guidelines will help keep your family together and in business at the same time? For some practical ideas, consult the original article for the “Mitchell” rules and consider how they might work for you family business.

Reference: CNNMoney (July 9, 2012) “Family business: How to pass the baton”