How Your Family-Owned Business Can Earn Record Profits in 2018

Family-owned businesses have unique challenges that impact their profitability – both positively and negatively. And often, the advantages that come with a family business are also the things that are most challenging.

But by addressing the Six Key Components™ of your business, you can set yourself up for greater profitability. In fact, next year could be your most profitable year yet. Follow these steps to take your family business to the next level of profitability.

Establish a Company Vision

Where are you going and how will you get there? If you don’t have a crystal-clear vision for your company that everyone understands, then you’ll have multiple people going in multiple directions. When your company is pulled in multiple directions, it can’t go anywhere.

It’s vital that everyone in the company is 100-percent aligned on where you’re going and how you’re going to get there.

Hire the Right People

This can be tricky for a family business. You’ve got natural loyalties to your siblings, cousins, and uncles – but you can’t build a great business without great people. How do you grow your business if Cousin Tony doesn’t really belong in his role?

This is where many family-owned companies fail. For the good of your company, and the people you employ, make sure you have the right people in the right seats. That might mean you have some difficult conversations ahead of you.

Hand-picked related content: What to Do When a Great Employee’s Performance Slips.

Be Data-Driven

Business decisions need to be based on actual data, not relationships or emotions. When you monitor the right data, you can easily cut through all the egos and personalities in your organization and make informed decisions that will strengthen your business.

Check out this article on how to track metrics to grow your company.

Start Solving Issues…for Good

One of the greatest challenges for a family-owned business is solving the real issues instead of treating the symptoms. It’s tempting to avoid the messy, underlying issues in your company, but it’s critical to get to the root of your problems. Only then can you start solving your issues for good. Otherwise, you’ll never really get your problems taken care of – they’ll keep popping back up in new incarnations.

Establish Your Process

Your process is your secret sauce. Establishing a process means systemizing your business by identifying and documenting the core processes that define the way to run your business. You’ll need to get everyone on the same page about the procedural steps, and then get everyone to follow them. That will create a new level of consistency and scalability in your company.

Start Gaining Traction®

Gaining traction comes from discipline and accountability – something that many family businesses spend decades struggling with. Do this, and you’ll start to become great at execution, taking your vision to the ground and making it real.

Earn Record-Level Profits Next Year

My clients regularly see record profits when they address these six key components in their family-owned companies. Ready to prepare for your most profitable year ever? Get started by downloading chapter 1 of Traction – the book that shows you how to strengthen the six key components of your business.