Family-businesses have a huge potential due to effective time and resource management.
If there are several family members that work for other people or companies, it’s a waste of both time and resources.
As we’re going through an economic turmoil amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, many families have decided to join their forces and launch small, family-run businesses.
We’ve analyzed what elements increase your chances to start and run such a venture successfully. Here are our observations and actionable tips.
1) Find a subniche
The competition out there is so fierce that you need to be very careful when choosing the right niche for your business. To be more precise, it would be even better to find a subniche and narrow down the type of your business operations as much as possible.
For instance, if you want to start a car repair shop, focus on one or two car brands.
Likewise, families trying to build a business in the digital marketing field need to find a gap on the market and fill it with their offer. After all, Airbnb was once a startup launched by two enthusiasts because they didn’t find on the market that type of accommodation providers.
In other words, take your time to understand what’s missing in the chosen niche, treat it as a subniche, and start writing your business story.
2) Target your audience
Closely related to the previous tip, you can’t define a subniche if you haven’t targeted the right audience.
First and foremost, use the power of social media. This time, parents and children could work together. For instance, younger family members could search social networks to see how people would react to their potential business.
If the potential venture would aim at older users, then Facebook is the best place to conduct the social media market research. On the other hand, family-run businesses targeting younger potential consumers should focus on Instagram and TikTok. Now, it’s possible to set up an Instagram shop and start selling items directly via this social network.
Additionally, each family member could check out their mail list and send out a market research questionnaire to all or handpicked persons. The questionnaire will help you get feedback from relevant potential customers and identify what kinds of users would use your family-business services.
3) Assign the roles
We’ve already mentioned that parents could ask their children to help them analyze the market via social media. Of course, when we say children here, we’re referring to older teenagers and younger adults.
This is only one of numerous ways in which you can assign the roles to family members.
Here are the main business aspects that need to be covered by those roles:
- Finance and asset management. One person needs to handle payments, accounting, and investments.
- Logistics. One person should be in charge of the business logistics, such as the office inventory, supplies, and transport (for some companies).
- Human resources and employee management. One person needs to handle communication and collaboration with potential employees, outsourcers, and clients.
- Both traditional and digital marketing require special care and attention.
This is only a suggestion of departments or teams that your family business could consist of. Depending on the number of family members and the initial workload, you might introduce more options or reduce the existing ones. Perhaps some family members could take more than one department.
As your business starts growing, you’ll probably have enough assets to hire experienced business professionals and managers. Even then, the family needs to supervise all teams and department to ensure steady growth.
4) Spread the news
Even the most popular companies in the world need to invest in advertising. Coca-Cola is probably the most powerful brand in the world and yet, they invest a lot of money in marketing.
So, your small, family-run business also needs to keep spreading the news about its presence from day one.
The aforementioned social media are practical means for this purpose.
Launch a business page on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Use Facebook for general promotion, Instagram for selling and visual promotion, and Twitter for public communication.
Also, take good care of your business website. Highlight that you’re a family-owned business and stress out your vision and mission. It might surprise how many users will decide to buy your products and services when they see you’re a family enterprise.
Similarly, don’t overdo with website content. As explained by the web design experts working in a web design company in Houston, smaller businesses must keep the website information simple and direct. The fewer distractions they are, the more likely random visitors are to convert into loyal customers.
Consider investing in paid online ads, as well as in commercials on radio and TV-stations. This is especially practical for businesses that provide offline business services.
5) Manage your time
The greatest risk for family members running a business together is that they start mixing family and business matters.
This is something that needs to be separated from day one.
For starters, bring a no-business policy for family lunches and leisure time. Don’t discuss business operations or disputes when you’re not at work.
Separate the business and personal assets, as well. Each family member should get their salary for their effort, but you need to form a business fund meant only for professional purposes.
Finally, determine the work hours for all family members and stick to the schedule.
The idea of starting a family business is financially justified, but it takes a lot of mutual effort of all family members.
The tips shared in this article will help you find a subniche, target your audience, and organize your operations. Then you should start advertising your business to generate leads. Finally, as the workload increases, you’ll see that leisure is important, as well. So, take some time to rest and recuperate so that all family members have enough energy to deal with all business challenges.
