FIVE TIPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL FAMILY-RUN BUSINESS

Minneapolis, MN – According to the Family Firm Institute, an estimated 80 percent of all businesses are considered family-run.*
Many of Regis Corporation’s franchises are family-run businesses, and these franchisees know what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. Here’s some shared advice that may help you begin your business:

1) Share the Goals and Vision
Make sure you, your spouse and children all understand what the long-term plans are for the company. When everyone understands the goals and vision, smaller things will come together more easily.

2) Get an Outsider to Help Instill Procedures
Whether it’s an outside consultant or an office manager whose full-time job is to keep you and your various family members on task, make sure that there is someone other than family to whom you are all accountable. All family members must agree on the processes this person implements.

3) Be Disciplined to Meet Regularly
Meeting regularly in the office – either once a day, week or month – helps keep communication consistent. Actions can go forward because everyone knows what each person is doing and there are no surprises.

4) Communicate Often
Even with scheduled business meetings, it will be important to communicate often. Keep lines of communication open – be willing to discuss anything from quick touch base to small (or large!) frustrations.

5) In the Office? Act Professional
Keep the personal life at home and bring the professional life to the office. Employees watch to see how family members interact at work. Make sure when you’re in the office you stay consistent with all of your staff members – family and non-family. Set the correct tone for everyone on your staff.

Regis Corporation Is Not Just a Family of Franchises, But a Family Businesses.
Of the more than 400 franchisees owning salon concepts, over 60% of them are family-run enterprises. In fact, the company started in Minneapolis, Minnesota more than 80 years ago as a family-owned salon. In 1922, Paul and Florence Kunin opened Kunin Beauty Salon, which quickly expanded into a chain of value-priced salons located in department stores. Their son, Myron had big dreams for the chain, buying it in 1958 and changing its name to Regis. Now, Regis Corporation has more than 12,800 worldwide locations. A family business success story if ever there was one.*

*SOURCES: Providence Business News, “Family businesses have traits to survive,” February 23, 2009