NEW ALLIANCE TACKLING ISSUES OF FAMILY-RUN BUSINESSES.

• Author: Christensen, Lisa
• Position: Around Utah

Salt Lake City -- By some estimates, a third of all businesses are family businesses. A group of local family business leaders gathered to talk about some of their struggles and challenges--and the lessons learned along the way--at a panel event from the FAMILY-OWNED BUSINESS ALLIANCE, sponsored by ZIONS BANK.

"You have to run it as a business. It has to be a business first," said Natalie Kaddas, CEO of Kaddas Enterprises. That advice was echoed by other panelists multiple times during the course of the panel.

There are a lot of benefits to starting or being a part of a family business--at Cuisine Unlimited, for example, founder Maxine Turner said there was an attitude of cooperation toward the company's success. Catering is an industry that often requires working early mornings, late nights, weekends and holidays, Turner said, and it was nice to be able to depend on family at the most inconvenient times.

It can often be easier to share a vision for the company with people who already share a set of familial values and similar backgrounds, too, said Jeff Miller, general manager of Mark Miller Subaru. "I think it's easier to pass on decisions if it's coming from family," he said. "I think it's a lot easier to pass down family values instead of having to pass values onto a stranger."

But making unpopular decisions, particularly about personnel, can be easier if a manager doesn't have to see the employee they reprimanded or fired at Thanksgiving dinner. Learning how to have the kind of conversations managers and employees dislike having in general with family members can be tough, but it's vital to succeed as a business, panelists said.

"They're uncomfortable but you get so much done," said Jason Olsen, founder of Prestman Auto. "I think a lot of people tend to shy away from those conversations and just hope things will get better, but that's when something starts to fester, and with a family business, you can't just leave the business--you're still family."

Letting bad behavior slide with a family member who works at a business can also inadvertently cause non-related employees to start doing similar behavior and lead to resentment about preferential treatment, he said, but dealing with it builds confidence and loyalty with those employees.

In growing family businesses, it is important to not give positions to family members just because they are family members, both for employee morale and for the strength of the business.

The progeny of Les...