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Suggest who benefitsFamily Businesses Aren’t Dysfunctional. They’re Disastrous
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Suggest questionThis week, in episode 204, Jay Goltz and special guest Cathy Caroll talk about family businesses, with Jay asserting that they are even more combustible than most people realize and with Cathy offering some smart coping strategies. We start with Cathy explaining how her own experiences in a family business propelled her to write a book, Hug of War (https://www.amazon.com/Hug-War-Family-Business-Logic/dp/B0D3GVL78V) , and to become a family business coach. Why are family businesses so difficult? Well, says Cathy, it’s because you’re trying to combine a family mindset with a business mindset, which she says, is a little like “living in socialism and capitalism simultaneously.” Of course, she says, it also has to do with mixing love and money—“You’re just gonna get sparks”—and with the brutal challenge of transitioning from one generation to the next, when every decision can feel like a repudiation or rejection. Still, it was that stew of anxiety, resentment, and trauma that helped Cathy find her calling, which is to help others do in their family businesses what she could not in hers.
About 21 Hats
The proponents of employee stock ownership plans can make them sound like the greatest thing ever. A business owner can take a big chunk of money off the table—or even all of it—while still getting to run the business. And there are some pretty great tax breaks. Oh, and it will also solve income inequality in America. On the other hand, if ESOPs are so smart, why are there so few of them?
Jim Kalb of Triad Components Group in San Diego and Jeff Taylor of Crafts Technology in Chicago have both implemented ESOPs. Jay Goltz of the Goltz Group in Chicago has reached his 60s without a succession plan, and he’s considering his options. In this 21 Hats Conversation, you get to listen in on a street-smart discussion of the pluses and minuses of ESOPs from the business owner’s point of view.