SMB Multi-Generational Business Management and Planning

There are countless obstacles that all growing businesses confront, but small family business owners must overcome an additional range of unique challenges. For example, there’s strategizing to scale while ultimately maintaining family control through future generations. Beyond succession planning, there’s essential self-education in effective family hiring, management practices, legal requirements, special risk evaluations, family business tax considerations, family business ethics, and special requirements when having your children working in the business.

Here are some essential points of advice for family business leaders:

Financial Planning For Family Businesses

Owning a family business gives entrepreneurs the freedom to focus on long-term goals. This approach offers organizations greater potential for long-term sustainability through internal or external adverse conditions.

4 Effective family business leaders tend to be more focused on goal-setting that factors in the best interests of the next generation than only the best choices to maximize the next quarter or year. (Reference: Family Business Center data.)

4 Owners of family businesses tend to apply financial strategies that serve their customers’ and employees’ priorities.

4 Family business leaders tend to include social responsibility in their planning and policies.

Evaluating Risk

Any small business ownership proposition is rife with financial risks, such as changing market conditions, financial planning errors, and unpredictable economic or environmental impacts. Additionally, family businesses are exposed to myriad family-related risks. The growth potential and future financial stability of the company depends on the leadership’s prioritization of legal and financial safeguards against many external and internal perils that threaten the business’s long-term interests. Those safety measures must include mastery of physical, management, financial, and legal implications of family business income, expense, labor management, profit-sharing, and succession plans.

Business Planning For Multigenerational Companies

In any small business, including family-owned portable restroom rental companies, growth and profit margins are the outcomes of management’s strategic vision and leadership effectiveness, and the team’s ability to produce. But, short- and long-range planning in a multigenerational business, as for any other business, is the critical leadership discipline that guides the enterprise to success or failure. That planning must include:

4 A written family business management succession plan.

4 Clear assignments of family members will oversee, run, and work in the operations.

4 Detailed written family hiring policies.

4 A written structure of each family member’s ownership interests.

4 Compensation plan for family members employed and not employed in the business.

4 Define ownership blocs and commensurate voting rights.

4 Specification of the form of shares (LLC or in a trust) based on individual interests.

Taxes On Family Members Employed By A Business

There are numerous special tax benefits for family businesses. For example, you can reduce your tax liability when you hire your family members as employees:

4 As a business owner, you are not required to pay unemployment tax for your spouse or your parents if they work for your company.

4 You also may not be required to pay the employer-side income tax or Social Security contributions for your children who work for your business.

Legal Requirements When Family Members Work in Your Business

Your children or any other family members employed in your business must be treated the way all other workers are managed:

4 Roles: Any work that children or other members of continued on page 16 the family do for the business must serve the legitimate regular needs of a business of your type, and the work completed must be documented.

4 Pay: Paychecks must be issued as part of the regularly scheduled payroll to your children or other family members working at your business.

4 Records: Employment records must be kept for all family members working in the business, including hours, payments for services rendered, etc.

4 Expenses: Children's assigned work tasks must be consistent with the job description for other employees with similar roles in the company.

IMPORTANT: You are legally required to obey federal child labor laws, including paying your child a legal wage, to be eligible for applicable tax benefits.

Succession Planning In The Family Business

Family business succession planning determines the company's future leadership, ownership share allocations, forms of profit distribution, and much more. Under best practices, directors can be installed to confirm new leadership, determine individual responsibilities, update policies, examine family roles, review continued on page 18 employment agreements, and evaluate compensation and retirement programs.

Working to resolve conflicts over leadership succession, asset distribution, favoritism, and other common family business issues helps the business stay under family control. But, according to the Family Business Institute, only a small percentage of family businesses remain under the family’s control after several generations (only about three percent.)

However, that statistic means that there are still many

KNIGHT'S SITE SERVICES: A Case of Online Marketing Done Right

Serving the California Central valley for more than 30 years, Knight's Site Services might be the prototypical septic company for our time. The primary reason we say this is because Knight's leans in first and most with their portable toilet rental service. This is clear when you visit their home page which immediately presents you with a scrolling series of images including a rock concert, a wedding, and a domestic backyard.

The second most noticeable thing about Knight's is the polished look of their website. Too few septic service companies do a good job on their online marketing. But this is an area where Knight's seems to have things under control. It's also worth noting that their website is mobile-friendly. That's something you only see about 50 percent of the time with septic service companies. It shows that they understand a few things about modern marketing, or that they work with a web developer who does.

After a brief conversation with upper management, we found out that is exactly the case. They found a local web development company in Bakersfield, CA that really did an impressive job crafting Knight's online presence. It shows that they did their research, and looked at what works in the septic business and what doesn't.

Their website all by itself says volumes, and we think it's worth discussing.

Online Marketing Done Right

There are a few interesting things about Knight's online presence that makes them stand out. For a start, their website looks professional. Their site is slick, simple, continued on page 22 and works well. It's almost flashy with the large, horizontal photo scroll bar on their home page, but they don't overdo it. That's important as well.

Next is their about page which gets right to the point. They explain who they are, how long they have been in business, and what their value proposition is. Their primary value proposition is simply quality service. They don't go on about tech stuff, explaining customer pain points and how they serve them. They just say 'We get the job done right and on time.'

This is something other septic companies should be doing. Most companies either leave out the about us page or say too much.

Value Added Content

Next, under their "About Knights" pull-down menu, they have a brief and to-the-point page about how they adhere to professional and regulatory standards as well as best environmental practices. It's an extension of their value proposition. It is technical but brief and can be understood at a glance.

This is so important for at least two reasons. Septic service customers don't want to get into the details of the industry. They don't need to hear a lot of technical jargon. They don't want to think about what they're continued on page 24

BOOTH 2251 shopping for. They need to see some convincing acronyms, some official-looking seals, and very little else.

That is exactly what you see on their EPS SWPPP Guidelines page. It does what it needs to do very quickly. It shows that Knight's is legitimate and professional. That means they can be held accountable for their work. That is all the customer needs to know.

Next comes their informative content, which is simple as well. It's just septic care tips and Frequently Asked Questions.

Knight's tells the customer what they need to know briefly and simply. Their septic tips page has about a dozen points and is slightly less than a page long.

In this business, the need creates itself. All the customer needs is a little direction, and Knight's delivers.

Simplicity In An Online Presence

Next to that is their "Request a Quote" page. It has a form for customers to fill out and a heartfelt testimonial right next to it. As a matter of fact, testimonials are the biggest features on their site.

You see a ton of them on their home page and a few more sprinkled here and there. Once again, they are giving the continued on page 26

Making A Positive Impact On Communities And Environments Around The World

customer the guidance they need to choose Knight's Site Services.

So why is all this important? The reason is, and they will tell you this themselves, the customer is going to make a decision in a matter of seconds. Most septic customers will pull the trigger on the first business they come to that looks professional and trustworthy.

That's why it is so important that the web content of companies like this can be understood at a glance. You need to establish authority and trust in seconds.

In the past, all you needed was an ad in the phone book, a name beginning with the letter 'A' , and the ability to get there before the other guy. Today's marketing scene is different.

So we want to thank Knight's Site Services for providing us with a great example of how to handle online marketing. We strongly recommend you check out their site and take as many pages from their online marketing playbook as you can.

Sources https://knightsservices.com/request-quote/