The family-run company faces additional obstacles, though, not the least being the blurred line between business and personal lives. How these special entrepreneurs meet their unique challenges often can determine the success and longevity of their businesses. These statistics, in part, can be attributed to a lack of planning, to a belief that a family business is preordained to survive until it dies a natural death. As many family entrepreneurs learn the hard way, that's not true. Family-business owners, like any entrepreneur, must plan for the future.
Death is inevitable, retirement is probable, and disability is likely.
To protect a business, owners must protect themselves against the financial catastrophe these occurrences can bring. But a family business is complicated by additional factors, including family relationships and a sometimes blind belief that every family member feels the same way about the business as the founder does. This one example sums up virtually every pitfall that a family business can experience. His plan stipulated his three sons were to equally inherit his business after both he and their mother passed on. But he still made virtually every mistake in the book.