![\"help\"](\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/help-300x211.jpg\")
There are a lot of stories about how men are reluctant to read the directions before starting to do an assembly or not asking for directions when they are lost!<\/p>\nThere are a lot of stories about how men are reluctant to read the directions before starting to do an assembly or not asking for directions when they are lost!<\/p>\n
According to one study by an insurance firm in Britain, the average male driver travels about 276 extra miles a year because of not wanting to ask for help!<\/p>\n
There is that old joke:<\/p>\n
QUESTION:<\/strong> Why does it take millions of sperm to fertilize one egg?<\/p>\n ANSWER:<\/strong> They won’t stop to ask for directions.<\/p>\n According to family business expert Don Schwerzler, you could make many of the same observations about family business entrepreneurs!<\/p>\n \u201cFamily business entrepreneurs are a special breed of men and woman,\u201d notes Schwerzler. \u201cWhen they are starting their family business, there is usually a scarcity of time and money so they learn to make do without getting help from others. They are very independent and generally very passionate about \u2018my way is the best way\u2019 when establishing the policies, practices and procedures that determine how their business will be run.\u201d<\/p>\n Schwerzler makes the argument that family business entrepreneurs tend to self-treat medical issues rather than going to a doctor; they get legal advice from family and friends rather than consulting with an attorney; they rely on \u201cindustry averages\u201d to gauge and measure the operational performance of their company rather than defining the true potential of the business.<\/p>\n And when they do reach out to professional service providers \u2013 they often get \u201csequential solutions\u201d \u2013 the accountant suggests accounting solutions; the lawyers suggest legal solutions; financial planners suggest insurance solutions. The resulting \u201cgridlock\u201d means wasted time and money for the family business owner.<\/p>\n Family business owners learn to wear many hats \u2013 operations, sales, marketing, accounting, finance, human resources \u2013 you get the point.<\/p>\n But in addition to dealing with the normal problems associated with running a successful business, family business owners also have to deal with the unique and complex issues involved with succession and other critical family business issues including family feuds, organizational development, career management and development for the next generation, sales, marketing and business development, innovation, compensation, work performance, governance, leadership and estate equalization, just to name a few\u2026<\/p>\n Given all this, it is easy to understand why change and innovation often comes slowly to a family business!<\/p>\n \u201cBut it doesn\u2019t have to be that way,\u201d says Schwerzler. \u201cAll too many family business owners waste time and money re-inventing the wheel \u2013 they aren\u2019t able to take advantage of the experiences \u2018learned\u2019 by other family business owners.\u201d<\/p>\n Schwerzler is an interesting \u201clearning resource\u201d for family business owners. He has worked with many hundreds of family businesses \u2013 helping them to grow significantly, helping to maintain healthy family relationships and then helping transition the business to the next generation \u2013 or preparing the business for sale if that is the better strategy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are a lot of stories about how men are reluctant to read the directions before starting to do an assembly or not asking for directions when they are lost! According to one study by an insurance firm in Britain, the average male driver travels about 276 extra miles a year because of not wanting… This Is a Major Issue for Family Business Owners: Asking for Help<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":1627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[729,740],"class_list":["post-1625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-don-schwerzler","tag-family-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1625"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1628,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1625\/revisions\/1628"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}