Damascus Family Business Consulting
The Unique Challenges and Opportunities of Family Businesses
EXOS specializes in working with a multitude of family dynamics in business. Many will say that your family and business should never cross paths. We believe that family businesses can be a life-changing opportunity and provide for future generations, but without intentional succession planning they often struggle to stay profitable. Having worked with a number of succession and family business situations in Damascus, Oregon and beyond, we are able to guide clients through the challenges that owners face and how to address them.
Give us a call and let’s discuss your current challenges in developing a family business or succession plan that will promote a positive, lasting legacy.
Ready to get started? Get in touch.
Challenges We Address in Family Business Consulting
There are several common challenges we find our Damascus family business consulting clients face. Our job is to help family-owned companies like yours answer these questions so you can move forward.
Is Everyone in the Right Role for Who They Are?
Different people are made to do different work – no amount of family pressure, monetary incentives, or getting used to the job is going to change that. The cornerstone of our work in family business consulting is determining the Core Values of everyone involved and using this knowledge to get them in the right roles with the right responsibilities.
We measure Core Values using the Core Values Index (CVI) assessment, which tells us what really drives a person to be a top performer in their life and work – whether that’s taking gut-intuitive action (Builder), building strong relationships (Merchant), strategizing and thinking outside the box (Innovator), or knowing the facts and the right way to do things (Banker). Each person’s Core Values are unique to them, and are innate – though sometimes certain Core Values are suppressed or overly praised within a family, making it hard for family members who don’t “get it” to feel like they really have a place. Issues with an under-praised or over-praised Core Value can have significant effects on family dynamics, which of course will play into company dynamics for a family-owned business.
Does Your Family Share Your Passion?
The values and driving passions of the founding generation of a family business may not be shared by succeeding generations – or they may just take a different form. EXOS family business advisors take the time to assess what drove the business to be founded in the first place, what has kept it going until now, and what energy can keep it moving into the future. The question of passion and motivation is by far more important to answer than anything regarding skills or training – for family businesses in particular.
What is the Exact Succession Plan?
Do you have a plan for how the company will be passed on to the next generation? This often isn’t a question merely of who will “take the reigns.” More likely it’s a matter of handing over many responsibilities and roles to several different individuals. A coordinated plan needs to be in place to make the process smooth for everyone, a plan that recognizes people for how they are hard-wired, thus avoiding issues of bitterness due to being “stuck” in a place that doesn’t suit who they are.
Each family is different, and so is each EXOS family business consulting scenario. The questions we ask in each situation we are invited into will be uniquely tailored to the people involved. We take the time to get to know your dynamic and give practical tools and a path forward no matter where you find yourselves today as a business and as a family. Give us a call to get started.
Unique Opportunities for Family Businesses
While family business consulting allows us to help our Damascus clients through a variety of challenges, it also gives us perspective on the awesome benefits that can come from a family-owned business.
Leaving a Legacy
Leaving behind an inheritance is a blessing for future generations. Leaving behind something more than money – passing down a mission – is possible when you strategically entrust a company to your children, grandchildren, and beyond. But you want to make sure that the next generation is ready and willing to take on that mission. That’s where EXOS Advisors come in as family business succession planning consultants. Don’t put your company on the shoulders of your loved ones without knowing this proven information. If you want to pass on your legacy effectively, do it wisely.
Growth and Healing in Families
All families have their ups and downs, their strengths and their difficulties. All families have their challenges to work through. We believe that family business consulting can serve as a great conduit through which to see progress take place. As we identify your family’s Core Values at an individual and group level through the Core Values Index tool, we gain a platform for meaningful and productive conversation about what it means to move forward as a family and as a business. Working with family doesn’t have to be a burden – in fact, it can be an incredible blessing as you see the older generation passing on their passion and all the benefits of their hard work to the next. But achieving this doesn’t always come naturally – that’s where advisors with insight into and experience with family businesses come into play.
So What’s Next?
- You reach out to us
- We call you back and set up a discovery session. We will also give you a link to take the Core Values Index, which is foundational in helping us understand you and how we can better serve you
- We conduct our discovery session where we ask questions, assess your needs, and figure out together what it looks like to move forward.
Ready to get started? Contact our team today!
