4 Ingredients For Family Business Success

When it comes to business, you can choose your friends, but you can’t always choose your co-founders. 

From experience, I can say family businesses present a dynamic all on their own.

Sometimes fraught with politics and heightened emotions, you won’t find covered in traditional business books.

After 10 years in business with my brother Nathan, we’re living proof the bond of brothers possess the all-important ingredients for long-term success: 

• trust
• a unified vision 
• commitment
• stability

The list goes on… 

Going into business with family can provide advantages that can’t be easily replicated within other companies.

Firstly, you pretty much know what you’re getting with family members. 

When you’ve known someone all your life, you have a fair idea of how they operate, how they’ll respond under pressure, their strengths and weaknesses, their dedication, their ethical fabric. (There’s nothing like sharing a bedroom and backyard soccer games to reveal someone’s true mettle)  

The biggest pro is trust. We're able to make decisions on each other's behalf and there's always comfort knowing there's someone in your corner.

If either of us had set up the business on our own then we may not have had the accountability and motivation to keep going, it's always good to have the reassurance that we're in it together. 

I’ve also found that it has given us a head start in resolving any conflicts that might arise, because, chances are, we’ve had them before.