Saveker rolls out her family business organisation
WELL-known Midlands businesswoman Dani Saveker has launched her family business organisation with an ambition to cover the whole of the UK.
Families in Business (FiB) aims to be a contact point for families working in business together particularly in the SME sector.
Saveker says the organisation will focus on providing family companies with community-based support ranging from corporate services such as business planning, accounting, legal advice and wealth management to more personal offerings around emotions and relationship dynamics.
Saveker, who was previously CEO of her family’s Birmingham manufacturing firm Savekers, said: “Managing a family business can be quite challenging, especially when you have to make decisions or tackle certain problems. The people you are working with are obviously not just colleagues or employees, but some of your closest family members.
“However, in order to run the business effectively, you sometimes have to block out the fact that you know these people inside out and might hurt their feelings, even if this means some decisions could impact on your personal relationship with them. How you then deal with this personally is another set of challenges.”
Having felt isolated and alone while going through the process of having to make family members redundant when her family business failed, Saveker says she wants to prevent other people in similar situations from having the same experience.
FiB has already partnered with chief executive organisation Vistage, events management firm Professional Event Services and Midlands accountants Cooper Parry and has also also teamed up with several charities such as Grassroots Suicide Prevention and Help Harry Help Others to tackle personal problems within families.
Saveker said: “According to research we have carried out, the biggest concern of family business members is that the company will negatively impact family relationships outside the business, closely followed by the difficulty of attracting and retaining high quality and essential business talent.
“These findings clearly show the need for a support network specifically tailored to family businesses.”
The study further reveals that despite family businesses making up two thirds of the UK’s private enterprises, only 30% of them make it to the second generation and a mere 10% survive up to the third generation.
