I will shortly be taking up a new role that will see me working with family businesses, a subject close to my heart and one that’s in my blood. As excited as I am about what lies ahead, I understand the importance and challenges that will come with such a responsibility.

Every business has it’s hurdles and obstacles of course, but a business that includes working with family has another dimension – the FAMILY DIMENSION.

If you work in your family’s business you will know what that means.

If you have never worked with family you won’t – you couldn’t possibly know what it’s like.

If you are an advisor or supplier to family businesses you won’t really understand it either but you should.

In order for families in business to get the best possible advice and support they need to be surrounded by teams that get the quirkiness and complexities of this F-DIMENSION.

I know the good, the bad and the ugly of working with my family – as does my husband who also worked with family for a while.

Here’s an just one quick story from my time as CEO of Savekers Limited and working with advisors… I had to choose a solicitor to help me carry out an MBO back in 2002. I was young and didn’t really understand the mechanics so I visited three Birmingham law firms in turn.

With each of them I presented the same vision and aims and also told them of the issues involved with the family holding shares. All three firms could demonstrate their professionalism and expertise, all were impressive – they clearly would know how to get the deal done. However, only one of these solicitors showed that more than his professional know how he understood the F-Dimension and what we needed as a family and as a business wanting to move forward.

Guess which one I chose! Not only did Richard become the solicitor that helped me complete the MBO but he also helped me when I went on to acquire several businesses and restructure the Board.

While there is no doubt in my mind that any solicitor or accountant that can genuinely show they know how to work with all the issues of a family business has a competitive advantage, it is just as important that the bank, wealth management team, PR and marketing consultants, web/IT team, the HR consultants and H & S advisors also have a solid understanding of the issues for a family business to get the support they need to succeed. Surely it’s a win/win situation then!

Happy New Year to all those fabulous family businesses out there and those that are committed to providing outstanding support and expertise to them to.

If you are interested in knowing more about my forthcoming role or would like to share your family business story, would like help within your own family business or would like to know how to develop your organisation to better support family businesses please drop me an email

During the administration process I proactively helped the IP’s to sell the business – which we managed to do. At the time I ran up £75 of expenses which were to be covered by the administrators. 6 months on and after several chases I received a cheque. The last 6 months have also been a time for the administrators to sell our 60,000 sq ft property just on the outskirts of Birmingham City Centre. We were assured that this sale would more than likely satisfy the amount we had guaranteed to the bank.

It always amazed me that during the struggle and lack of salary that my cousin and I endured at times, the personal guarantees we were forced to accept to save the business seemed irrelevant to fellow board members, the Union and senior employees who were all aware of them.

I wrote an email on Friday to the IP’s to acknowledge receipt of the £75 only to receive this

“I’m glad you emailed, need to let you know about an offer we have had on the property.  It is at the lower end of valuers estimates but we have had very little interest to date and they have recommended we accept.  The offer has been forwarded to the Bank for their consideration and I am waiting to hear back from them…  I just wanted to let you know that there is a strong possibility at this stage that the Bank will have a shortfall …”

And there you have it, on a Friday afternoon at 4pm the IP’s prove once again they don’t have a clue about people and how to deal with them. This is also considering that when I called them in initially, during the first meeting they told us “Don’t worry we’ll look after you”.

Personally I am ready to deal with whatever the Bank have to do – but receiving emails like the one of Friday made me so angry and yet not surprised in the slightest.