Author: Carol Wirth

“After more than 15 years in public relations with roots in journalism, I reached a point where I needed to find what I was passionate about in my profession or find a new one. I thought I would come out of the process changing careers. Instead, I found what I truly love about the one I’ve already got: Telling people’s stories. Everyone’s got a story – it’s what makes people (and people make up businesses) who they are, it’s their personality, their difference. I enjoy finding the story, pulling it out, making it relevant and communicating it to the public. In my adapted career, I simply found another way to communicate the stories – through documentary video.”
You can contact Carol at carol@glimsity.com
Only 13 percent of all family-owned businesses make it to the third generation.
There are the factors that seem obvious of why the majority of businesses don’t carry on to other family members: no younger generation, no younger generation interested, economic conditions, and more.
But who are these 13 percent of businesses that make it, and how do they endure?
We produce videos at Glimsity that tell the stories of small businesses, some of those are family-owned. We do not claim to be experts in family-owned businesses, we’re mere observers. Yet there are consistencies from our time spent with successful family-owned businesses that are worth noting:
- the younger generation of leaders have worked their way up in the business;
- the older generation of the family actively supports the new leadership;
- the younger generation maintains the tradition in which the business was founded;
- all the while staying focused on innovating.
Technology can be one of the obstructions family-owned businesses face when passing down the business generation to generation. When the new boss, representative of the younger generation in the family business, introduces ideas of modernization and tools that will improve efficiency and performance – the ground gets a little shaky for older employees.
A lesson we can all learn from a successful family-owned business is that the younger leaders have worked most of the jobs on their way up to the top. They know the jobs and the organization, inside and out. Therefore, they know what they’re asking of employees. What that change is going to entail and how hard a transition may be.
When the older generation is supportive of the younger generation’s ideas and leadership capabilities, it is a sign of stability in the organization and a show of commitment to success.
Family ownership has been the secret of success at Southern Motors in Savannah, Georgia. It is the difference they provide customers. Southern Motors Group has grown into three car dealerships serving the Savannah area. Now, in the hands of the grandsons, they continue the tradition in which the Kaminsky’s have operated the business for well over 80 years while navigating the stores into the future of automotive sales and service.
Click here to view the full Southern Motors video.
And check back for more #bigshoestofill series.
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At Glimsity, in our regular work day we talk to a lot of people, collect useful nuggets of information, gather insight and identify trends locally. Lil is an acronym for Local inside look (Lil). At Lil G Blog, we want to share the good stuff with you. It’s everything that doesn’t fit into our short videos.