Administration July 6, 2003

Women Dominate Family-Run Businesses

June 19, 2002 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Family businesses have more productive employees, survive longer and provide more management opportunities for women, a new survey by Barclays finds.
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Further, family-owned businesses have greater than average sales turnover per employee, and, while generally small, account for 60% of the UK’s businesses. On average family businesses have been trading for 22 years on average, seven years longer than their non-family run counterparts.

The survey of family business workers also shows that:

  • family-run business are more likely to have a woman in a leadership position, with nearly three in 10 run by women, compared to 25% of non-family firms,
  • two-thirds of family business owners believe that running a business could create tension in the family, and
  • 4% of respondents have experienced a conflict that led to a member of the management leaving the firm

Family Matters

Quizzed on hiring practices,

  • 25% of people who run family firms said they prefer to employ relatives, citing greater trust, reliability and loyalty as the reasons,
  • while 45% would rather employ strangers, with 28% of this group saying they did not want to mix family and business,
  • 28% said they found their relatives harder to manage, and
  • 26% said they caused more problems


 

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