Sustaining the Family Business

By Marshall B. Paisner

Book Overview

From the local dry cleaner to the nation's largest breweries, family businesses make up 90 percent of the 15 million businesses in the United States. Yet only one-third make it to the second generation, and only 10 percent to the third. As he prepared to retire after 30 years at the helm of a successful business, Marshall Paisner set out to develop a resource that would outline a comprehensive set of principles to help business owners establish a strong foundation and manage transitions successfully. Drawing from his own extensive experience, new primary research, and examples from a wide range of family businesses, Paisner offers practical recommendations for handling conflict, establishing professional management structures, setting strategic goals, making the most of outside directors, preparing heirs to take the reins, proactively setting tax and estate priorities, and making wise selling decisions.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0738203203
• ISBN13: 9780738203201
• Release Date: May 2000
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

THE Family Business Guide!

Paisner fully succeeds in addressing the various critical issues challenging family businesses. A superb work that delves into multiple scenarios--from leadership and control situations to managing for future generations to run the business. Paisner at all times leads the reader to the conclusion that the family business is far more than just a job or even a piggy bank for future generations but rather a means to an end stressing the growth and development of both the future heirs as well as the communities in which the business operates. "Sustaining the Family Business" takes into account numerous societal, family, and financial considerations and pulls from numerous sources (several full pages of citations attest to this fact.) A must-have, must-read for family businesses and their heirs, a resource that needs to be discussed and internalized as more and more family businesses seem to disappear into big-business corporate amalgamations. Fantastic, 5 Stars!

Scrub-a-Dub cleans up

Articulate and literate. The author has some valuable insights. If your business is worth many millions, check out his column versus pyramid idea of ownership succession. Or if you're ready to pass your company, of any size, along to the next generation, the options are discussed here.

A thoughtful look at the family business

These days, it seems harder than ever to predict the future of the family business. Killer companies, rollouts and sweet buyout offers have dampened the enthusiasm of many first-generation business owners for passing their businesses on to their sons and daughters.Indeed, when presented a "too good to be true" offer from a potential buyer, patriarchs and matriarchs are inclined to say "Why not?" They can take the cash, make sure that their retirement years will be comfortable, and have some money left over to pass on to the kids.A compelling argument, but it's not what family businesses are about, says Marshall Paisner, founder and now chairman of the ScrubaDub Auto Wash Centers, a chain of 10 car washes in metropolitan Boston. Paisner believes that family businesses exist to sustain families financially and spiritually. Yes, they must be innovative, customer-focused and, ultimately, profitable. And yes, sometimes selling out is the best option. But Paisner believes that it's the best option far less often than people think.Paisner launched ScrubaDub in 1965. Through innovation, a participative management style, fun and a slavish devotion to the customer, the company has grown steadily since then. No doubt much of that growth is due to Paisner's enthusiasm about customer service. He's even managed to make car washes fun, offering coupons and red-carpet service for regular customers. (See the company's website at www.scrubadub.com for information on the Car Care Club, gift ideas and the Scrubadub Difference.)He sees the family business as a gift, not a burden. Indeed, this is the fundamental thesis of his book. But getting kids to see the business as a privilege instead of a right doesn't happen overnight. It starts at the dinner table, when the kids are young."In too many families, parents send signals to their children that running a family business is a stressful and unfulfilling endeavor," says Paisner. "Wishing to spare their children unnecessary worry about problems they can't understand, parents unwittingly turn their children against the business by banishing business talk from the dinner table, closing off opportunities to share both disappointments and triumphs."Paisner himself prepared his kids for a ScrubaDub future by having them to work in the car wash during summers, then encouraging them to work outside the business after graduation before joining the company. Once the kids were involved in the business, he instituted a participative style of management that allowed all family members to gradually take on responsibilities and learn how to deal with conflict.He drew up a "family plan" to articulate the family's overall intentions for the business. Owners can use such plans to articulate their conception of the business "as a trust for which each generation acts as a temporary guardian, preserving it to pass on to later generations," he believes.Paisner firmly believes that most of the reasons

well worth your time

The dreary statistics are familiar to all of us who work with family businesses: family businesses make up 90% of the 15 million operations in the United States. Only one-third make it to the second generation. And only 10% make to the third.Given such depressing numbers, isn't it only logical that owners can easily be convinced by industry consolidators to turn their ownership into cash?Marshall Paisner takes strong objection to this view.Accountants can only consider market value when making pricing decisions. Family business owners need to take market value into account, but they also need to consider family values. In the long run, family value is more important. The goal of a family business is to live a desired lifestyle and give the next generation the opportunity to do the same thing.And if you don't like Paisner's "soft" view of business, he argues that the return on a successful family business is almost always greater than the after-tax return of an estate produced by the sale of such a business.Much of what Paisner says has been said elsewhere. This book is worth reading because Paisner is the Chairman of Scrub-A-Dub Auto Wash Centers, Inc., one of the world's largest car-wash chains. Founded in 1965, he has successful transitioned the business to his two sons. And we can personally attest that Scrub-A-Dub is one of the best consumer products marketing companies we have ever seen! And we have seen many.SUSTAINING THE FAMILY BUSINESS is a "How I Did It" book plus an integration of published research plus an integration with other family businesses around the country.Topics include: Creating a Family Culture, Managing Family Conflict, Developing Tax Strategies, Developing Estate Strategies, When Selling Makes Sense, Navigating a Successful Sale.For those of who serve on Boards of family businesses, Paisner speaks positively about the use of true outsiders to serve on his Board of Advisors, how he selected them, and how he compensated them.He has a section on what actions to take when spouses' perceive that their mates are being unfairly treated. Such perceptions can poison both the business atmosphere and the family atmosphere. Paisner has a cogent prescription for what those steps ought to be.