It seems as if there are a million things to consider when developing a new business venture. But does your family have the right to be considered in the process? Of course they do, but rarely do they receive equal consideration to finances, business potential, or our own personal desire to achieve success. If your family (spouse, children, parents) aren’t on board with you one hundred percent, at some point you, your business, and/or your family will bear the consequences.
New businesses require a tremendous amount of time and nurturing to develop and become successful; time that is taken from elsewhere, often from the family. Unless you’re starting a “family” business where all members are participants, someone will inevitably feel left out, or neglected.
Our family members don’t always share the same dream as we do. Their priorities may be something far from business success. To make sure our families don’t suffer due to our own ambitions, before you pursue your dream business, sit down with them and discuss the following:
• Will the business venture take away from quality time spent with family members? If so, how much is acceptable to all involved?
• Will the new business be initially funded or supported using family monies? If so, will this put a financial strain on the family?
• Do all family members agree this is a potentially successful business idea?
• Do all family members realize that most new businesses do not succeed?
• If the business is not showing signs of becoming successful, what operational time period will the family tolerate before the business is considered a failure and should be sold or closed down?
• If the new business fails, what is the alternative plan for income?
Some of the questions listed above may not have obvious answers until the business has started up and operated for some period of time. Since circumstances may vary regularly with new business, plan to review this list with the family about every six months to see what situations may have changed.
Your family needs to be in total support of your new business idea, or somewhere and at some point, somebody will suffer. Consider whether your “big idea” is worth the possibility of distancing yourself from your loved ones, or even the finality of a possible divorce.
Business owners with complete family support stand a much greater chance of success. Talk to your family and trust in their opinion before you start a new business.
Carol Denbow is the author of three books, including Are You Ready to Be Your Own Boss? available through www.BooksByDenbow.Weebly.com .
About the Author:In 2002, Carol Denbow sat down and wrote the introduction to her first book. Two years later, "Are You Ready to Be Your Own Boss?" was in print fulfilling the need for new business owners to achieve success.
Carol is a successful retired business owner, mom of two awesome kid’s, and since 2002 has authored two additional non-fiction books including, “A Book Inside, Writing, Publishing, and Selling your Story” (2008)
Please visit Carol's Website
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By: cjdaves157 | 24-07-2008
I am writing a book. Below is an excerpt, looking for opinions and advice.
Given A Choice
I have often tried to imagine what my life would have been like if I could have picked my parents and circumstances in advance. If given a choice before birth I am sure I would have chosen a wealthy, high profile, investment banker father with a mother who spent her entire days planning fundraising soirées for the benefit of underprivileged kids.
My childhood would have been filled with lavish vacations, shopping sprees and summers studying abroad. All of my friends would line up for the chance to stay over at my five story one hundred and fifty room mansion located somewhere off the west coast where the sun was always shining and the olympic size pool was always inviting. My nanny, obviously from some foreign country, would take care of all the daily chores that would have helped me to grow into a responsible adult. My teenage bedroom would have been the size of a normal ranch style house with a closet the size of a three car garage. I would have been the envy of every teenage girl and the crush of every teenage and preteen boy.
I imagine I would have sailed through adolescence and breezed through young adulthood without any obstacles to help shape my moral values. I envision me selecting Civil Law as my profession and the standard successful husband and two and a half kids. My children would grow to become successful adults with professions in the medical, legal and political fields.
After spoiling tons of grandchildren and leaving my mark on the world, I would have died somewhere around the age of ninety-five, quietly in my home under the care of a most wonderful and loving Hospice worker. My life?s achievements and my husband?s pension would ensure that my children and their children would be set financially for life. I am sure that I am not alone in my thoughts of what would have made the perfect atmosphere for the perfect childhood. Some may have chosen more exotic locations, more wealth or maybe more high profile, celebutant parents. I envision that just enough for whatever I wanted would have been perfect enough.
Similar to how infertile couples pick out sperm at a sperm bank I use to think it would have been nice to review the details of what I was being born into. Looking back now I know that choice is not always a good thing. Most children born into the scenario I described above end up killing thirty of their peers in a school yard shooting, after which suicide seems to become their only way out. I believe that there is a higher power that does review the blueprints of families and has a keen sense for why you are placed where you are. Still, when I think back to the sperm analogy used above, I see my parents picking ?purple sperm? and I came out ?green?.
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