How I ... involve my family in the business

Sep 9 2008 by Karen Dent, The Journal

HOW I ... is a column in conjunction with the Entrepreneurs’ Forum that looks at the gems of advice shared by our top entrepreneurs on dealing with issues in their daily lives. Each column explores three different takes on an issue and we look forward to their advice on everything from How I ... raised finance, How I ... market my business, How I ... dealt with disaster and many more.

1 My wife’s now officially a non-executive director, but she’s always been there to help me when I had to make some really tough decisions. Alistair McLean, Activities Abroad

2 I actually think that running your own business can help you if you’ve got a young family. When my husband joined the business 10 months in, I made the conscious decision that one of us would be home at 4.30pm every day to have a meal with our children.

I also drop my son off at school every morning, and I probably wouldn’t be able to do that if I was working in the long-hours environment, and it’s all for somebody else anyway. The downside of that is we’re working on my laptop at midnight some nights, but that’s our decision. To be able to have that flexibility to work when you want to is great when you have young children. Kari Owers, O Communications

3 My uncle was at the stage where he was wanting less and less to do with the business, and I was going the other way. I was still a minority shareholder and I’d built up a lot of confidence that I could really do it for myself in those two or three years. I just thought, there’s no reason why I can’t do this. It’s my personality that I’m not afraid to take a chance and I decided to buy into a family business with Andrew, who’s now my business partner, and I as co-directors. It was a small bakery turning over two or three hundred thousand a year but it was an opportunity for me to take more of a lead. Greg Phillips, North East Bakery

For more How I ... tips go to www.ifwecanyoucan.co.uk, which is inspired by the Entrepreneurs’ Forum.

HOW I ... is a column in conjunction with the Entrepreneurs’ Forum that looks at the gems of advice shared by our top entrepreneurs on dealing with issues in their daily lives. Each column explores three different takes on an issue and we look forward to their advice on everything from How I ... raised finance, How I ... market my business, How I ... dealt with disaster and many more.