Once the papers are signed and you’re officially the new family business owner, the decisions that you will be making during the next few months can dictate what will happen to the family business for years to come. You will be having a lot of questions, like will you be able to run it successfully or not? Is this the business that you want for the rest of your life? If there are no long-term strategies, what strategy should you follow? And how can you deal with the current suppliers and employees?
If you already have all these questions on your mind and you’re not sure where to start, it’s better to seek a professional’s help to guide you through the legal documents and paperwork, along with how the work is done. But if you’re on your own, keep reading to find out about a few tips that will allow you to know what to do once you’ve inherited the family business.
What to Do When You Inherit Family Business?
In order to know the answer to this, you will need to ask yourself a few questions and follow some steps. By doing that, you will narrow down your options, and you’ll have a clearer vision of what your next move should be.
Keep the business or sell it?
The first step you should think about is not whether you can run the business successfully. The important question now is whether you want to keep it or not. This step should be easy if there isn’t anyone else involved, but if your siblings are inheriting the business as well, then you should all agree to what you’re going to do. If you want to keep the family business and one of your siblings doesn’t agree, you can consider inheritance buyouts, through which you reach an agreement with your sibling—or any other inheritor for that matter. You pay for their share in the business, and they leave it all for you. Inheritance buyouts can be the best solution when the business is under two or more siblings’ names, and not all partners agree on keeping it.
Learn about it
Once you’ve settled on keeping the family business, the next step should be learning all about the business. Even if you’ve been prepared to run the family business, owning it is entirely different. Communicating with stakeholders is the first thing that you should do. Vendors, suppliers, and employees may want some assurance that the work will continue. Whenever an owner changes, the employees will most likely be afraid of losing their jobs. So, you will need to ensure that work will go on as it is or with some minor changes. The important thing when communicating with stakeholders is not to overpromise; keeping their expectations realistic will build trust faster.
Inheriting the family business can be overwhelming, but once you’ve decided to keep it, you should learn all about it and do your best to maintain the productivity level. Updating the business plan and communicating with stakeholders can help you settle the business for a few months until you know how it all works. It’s always preferable to consult a specialized lawyer so you can have legal advice on how to run the business and fill out the right papers.