Back to Back Issues Page
UFB Newsletter #085
January 30, 2010

January 30, 2010 Issue #086

Family Business... Business Family

We have added new sections to our web site, where we invite family business owners and key executives to share their thoughts, ideas and recommendations with other family businesses.

Family Business Forum

Our Family Business Forum section is a "soap box" where family businesses can offer fresh ideas to the politicians in Washington who are considering new polices to help improve the success of family businesses. We also encourage family businesses to offer cost saving suggestions that could prove helpful to other family businesses.

True Crime Stories

Family businesses often are victimized by trusted key employees who embezzle money, inventory and services. We invite family businesses to share their experiences in dealing with fraud and other types of crime - to help other family businesses better understand how important it is to be ever vigilant. Here is an opportunity to help other family businesses from becoming a crime victim!

Family Business Mission Statements

The growth and profits of a family business are influenced by the infra-structure of the business - the process from moving from an entrepreneurial style of management to a more formalized or professionalized style of management. Developing an effective mission statement for the family business is often the first step in that process. We invite family businesses to post their mission statement so others can see "real world" samples of family business mission statements.

Haiti Help

When a catastrophic event happens, the generous responses from family businesses are huge, but seldom recognized. If your family business has created a special initiative to help the people of Haiti deal with the devastating earthquake, please share what your family business has done - your posting could help inspire other family businesses to help.

SWINE FLU SYMPTOMS
Does Your Family Business Have
A "What Happens If" Plan?

Swine Flu Symptoms

The symptoms of swine flu in humans are similar to those of infection with other flu strains:

• Fever

• Cough

• Sore throat

• Body aches

• Headache

• Chills • Fatigue

• Diarrhea

• Vomiting

Symptoms develop three to five days after you're exposed to the virus and continue for about another week. You can pass the virus to other people for about eight days, starting one day before you get sick and continuing until you've recovered. When to see a doctor See your doctor immediately if you develop flu symptoms, such as fever, cough and body aches, and you have recently traveled to an area where H1N1 swine flu has been reported. Be sure to let your doctor know when and where you traveled. Also see your doctor if you develop respiratory symptoms after you've been in close contact with someone who may have been exposed to H1N1 swine flu. Doctors have rapid tests to identify the flu virus, but there is no rapid test to differentiate swine influenza A H1N1 from other influenza A subtypes.

Source: The Mayo Clinic newsletter http://www.mayoclinic.com/

Family Businesses should have a contingency plan in place – a “What Happens If” plan.

One of the remarkable stories out of Katrina was Oreck, the company that manufactures and sells/services vacuum cleaners. Their plant on the Gulf Coast was heavily damaged – but because they had a well thought out contingency plan, they were able to be back in business 9 days after Katrina hit. FEMA could take some lessons…. You can read about Oreck’s success story by clicking on the link at the bottom of this Blog.

Contingency planning can cover many different situations – from natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, fire, floods, swine flu and including the unexpected death or incapacitation of key members of a management team.

To read more about contingency planning for your family business,

FAMILY BUSINESS CONTINGENCY PLAN



Given the mess in Washington DC and Wall Street, we are advising our family business clients to take action – to create a stimulus package for their own family business!

GETTING LEAN AND MEAN
Preparing Your Family Business Stimulus Strategy

If you are a family business owner, it is time to circle the wagons and do a complete “up and down” analysis of your business. Simply put, what can be done to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of your business?

One approach, probably the most effective methodology for a family business owner to analyze their business and assess the various components, is to do a SWOT ANALYSIS.

It is easy to do and the SWOT process can produce powerful results, quickly.

CLICK HERE to read more about SWOT Analysis

All that is needed to do a SWOT ANALYSIS is a pencil and a pad of paper – and then asking some basic questions about the “whys and what fors” of your business. It is literally that simple!

Obviously, the better the questions, the better the results the SWOT ANALYSIS will produce.

A clever tool to help generate questions is an inexpensive tool called CHAOS BUSTERS – The Management Guide. It presents 160 key business questions one can use when doing a SWOT ANALYSIS. Think of the SWOT ANALYSIS being the pistol and Chaos Busters being the bullets!

Chaos Busters can be used for more than SWOT ANALYSIS – it really is a multi-purpose tool that can be used for many different kinds of applications.

Family business owners report how they use Chaos Busters as a way to better organize the focus of the management team – to help them see and get connected to the “big picture”.

Executives seeking employment report they are using Chaos Busters to help them ask better (more effective) questions during the interview process.

Management consultants and business advisors use Chaos Busters to better understand their client's businesses, to prioritize problems and to provide better (more comprehensive) solutions.

CLICK HERE to learn more about Chaos Busters

Reminders...

It costs you nothing... zip...nada... to ASK THE EXPERT. Most of our site pages have a link to a form that lets you submit your question to one of our experts. We try our best to respond within 48 hours.

Our Family Business Blog [Blog is short for "web log"] mini-journal will keep you updated about site changes and other family business matters. Check it out regularly on the site from the NavBar button. Better still, subscribe to the blog using the RSS feed information on any of our pages, such as

Understanding Family Business.

And remember to Take our fr*ee assessment on the 29 Leadership Practices...



That's it for this issue. If you have any comments, or if there are any topics you'd like to see covered, please let us know.

Comments, requested topics, blog messages...!



© 2000-2010 Family Business Institute, Inc.
904 Steffi Court, Lawrenceville GA 30044
(V)770.952.4085 (F)770.237.9818

Contact Don Schwerzler
Back to Back Issues Page