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Get to Know Your Ambassadors: Elyse Arsulowicz

Family Business Alliance Ambassadors are volunteers for FBA who are committed to helping members get the most out of their membership. They are all individuals who have been very involved with the organization and have used resources and programs to help strengthen their businesses and families. Ambassadors are available as a resource to our members for any questions they may have from a member’s perspective. 

Elyse Arsulowicz is one of FBA’s committed ambassadors serving the family business community on her own time. Get to know Elyse with her answers to our questionnaire below.
How did you first get involved in FBA?

Very unknowingly! Our Director of Finance sent me a link and said he thought it would be a good opportunity for me to join a peer group, I wasn’t sure what it was or what it entailed but I signed up to attend the Peer Group Recruitment dinner and the rest is history!

Why is FBA important to you?

FBA has provided me not only a safe space (Peer Group) to openly discuss issues, challenges, success, etc of working in a family business, but resources to help better myself, our company, and our community. The networking opportunities, the relationships, and the lifelong friendships that I have made within FBA is truly invaluable.

What has been your favorite FBA event or activity?

The Peer Group experience has exceeded my expectations exponentially. I also always find value in all the events; the time and effort to seek out each speaker, series, or roundtable is apparent. I always enjoy the events that are held at different member’s locations – it’s such a fun way to learn more about your fellow FBA members and to learn more about local businesses.

Why do you think family businesses are important to West Michigan?

Family Businesses are the foundation of West Michigan! From small, two-person businesses to large, multi-million-dollar companies – they are everywhere! We are such a huge driver of our local economy and what makes WM so amazing! The comradery and the support for one another is an amazing thing to be apart of.

What are some of your favorite hobbies?

Spending time with my family and friends while enjoying good food & drinks and traveling!

Some fun facts about Elyse:

Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: Rum Raisin

Favorite GR Restaurant: – I absolutely cannot name just one! See above favorite hobby!

Favorite TV Show or Movie: Game of Thrones or Schitt’s Creek

Favorite book:  Pillars of the Earth or anything Stephen King

 

Your 7-Step Plan for Creating Chaos in Your Family Business

This article was originally published by Warner Norcross + Judd and has been republished with consent.

William Lentine

Most business owners know that proper succession planning can help keep their business running strong into the next generation. They understand the importance of creating a plan to prepare heirs and key employees to run the business when it is time. But sometimes owners are busy and fail to plan for the future of their business in a timely manner.

Executing an unplanned transition when the family business leader becomes incapacitated or passes can be painful for the family (at an already difficult time) and potentially damaging for the business. Families in this situation often engage Warner to help them create a path forward for the business.

We think it makes sense to offer some lessons learned by these families as a resource for current business owners. Instead of offering a typical “best practices” list, we took a different approach. Here are some “worst practices” that will surely wreak chaos in your family business after you pass – from families who have experienced an unplanned business transition

7 Ways to Create Chaos in the Family Business After Your Death

  1. Don’t document your good intentions. Think about succession planning for years, but don’t document any of your thoughts or planning ideas for the family. Or, to make it really interesting, keep jotting down ideas on various notepads, napkins or sticky notes over the years, creating obvious contradictions between the ideas.
  2. Leave business ownership to your family but without a skilled operator in charge of it. This spreads chaos over the widest possible range after your death, affecting family members, employees, customers, suppliers and professional advisors when the battle lines are drawn between children and possibly your spouse as they wrestle for control of the company while dealing with their grief.
  3. Pick one winner. Leave both the business equity and control to one child that seems reasonably responsible and ask them to do the “right” thing for their siblings and remaining parent. For maximum family strife, the “responsible” child should be married to a spouse who is greedy or difficult to deal with.
  4. Don’t do any estate or tax planning. This way your heirs will not only struggle with the above issues but will also inherit a huge tax bill that they were not expecting and will have to cover by taking out loans or by selling the business.
  5. Micro-manage future leaders. Allowing your children or other key employees to manage portions of the business will allow a leader or group of leaders to naturally emerge, whereas micro-managing those heirs and other key employees in their current positions will ensure that they won’t learn how to lead, make decisions or accept responsibility.
  6. Don’t discuss the future of the family business. Avoiding these conversations ensures that you won’t know whether your heirs or current managers actually want to run the business and allows you to create a pressing sense of obligation for the next generation to work in or run the business. Even better, this sense of obligation can create next generation business leaders who are resentful or who lack the passion that you brought to running the business.
  7. Keep your professional advisors under wraps. Failure to introduce your professional team to your children can create havoc for your business because neither of these groups will be prepared to handle the inevitable difficult discussions that ensue during a transition. Plus, your children will not know and may not trust your attorney, CPA, investment advisor or other professional advisors, adding even more obstacles to this transition.

Having No Plan Can Also Cause Chaos in Your Business

Naturally, we wouldn’t expect you to do any of the things on this list on purpose to cause disruption and bad feelings in your family. But sometimes, not planning for the future can have the same impact on your family as if you had intentionally tried to cause chaos, leaving loved ones in a less than desirable position down the road should something happen to you.

Many of the steps involved in successfully transitioning a family business can take years, even decades to complete, so it is better to start planning sooner rather than later. Contact your Warner attorney or Bill Lentine at wlentine@wnj.com or at 248.784.5061 to begin planning for the eventual transition or sale of your family business.

Originally published by Warner Norcross + Judd.

Rightsizing Risk Series: Creating Value for the Future

As the economy begins to emerge from beneath COVID-related restrictions, many uncertainties remain in the small business sector. But one step you can take to right-size your risk and improve your opportunities for future growth is to make sure you have good financial management and tighten your financials, according to John Ruther, managing director for consulting firm O’Keefe. He was interviewed by Sheri Welsh for The Welsh Wire podcast, sponsored by the Family Business Alliance.

“Making sure that somebody can see three to five years of really good solid financials, that you can’t poke holes in, it turns out to be really valuable,” he says.

Ultimately, the goal of good financial management is to create value for the future, Ruther says.

“And obviously, if something’s not valuable anymore, then there’s not a need for it. So as long as you’re keeping it valuable, then that makes all the sense in the world.”

Ruther also says it’s also important to expand company knowledge and expertise beyond the firm’s founder.

“In a lot of cases, you’ll see that the people who work for or work within that company look to that person to make all those decisions. So when it comes time to look to either pass it on or exit or take a look at even expanding the customer base, [if] it’s that person that is the reason that the business is so successful [then] it’s really important for you to start to pass that information on to somebody else.”

He also says you can help future-proof your business by spending time now in strengthening relationships and building trust with suppliers, bankers, etc.

The Family Business Alliance serves to advance family businesses in West Michigan with the tools, strategies, and partners to achieve multi-generational success.  We provide educational opportunities, events, and resources that will assist you to elevate leadership, navigate governance and create connections. 

Get to Know Your Ambassadors: Shannon Doyle-Heads

Family Business Alliance Ambassadors are volunteers for FBA who are committed to helping members get the most out of their membership. They are all individuals who have been very involved with the organization and have used resources and programs to help strengthen their businesses and families. Ambassadors are available as a resource to our members for any questions they may have from a member’s perspective. 

Shannon Doyle-Heads is one of FBA’s committed ambassadors serving the family business community on her own time. Get to know Shannon with her answers to our questionnaire below.
How did you first get involved in FBA?

A friend of mine who is also in a family business was telling me about the program and how much he got out of the peer group and when I looked into they were starting a new one so I jumped in.

Why is FBA important to you?

FBA gives me a space to talk with people who understand where I am coming from and aren’t in my family.  The people in the program want everyone to succeed and the whole focus is to be supportive and help those around you win.  I want to help to push that forward.

What has been your favorite FBA event or activity?

I find the peer group meetings consistently provide a great service, and using FBA’s resources to find new people/experts to come talk to our group enhances the experience exponentially.

Why do you think family businesses are important to West Michigan?

West Michigan is such a tight community and the backbone of that is family business.  When you can leverage the type of generational knowledge that our area has and allow a safe space to talk about successes and failures within a family business that makes us all better and continues to improve our slice of the world.

What are some of your favorite hobbies?

Walking our dogs or going to the lake.

Some fun facts about Shannon:

Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: Mint Chocolate Chip

Favorite GR Restaurant: Speak EZ

Favorite TV Show or Movie: The Princess Bride

Favorite book: The Alchemist

 

Rightsizing Risk Series: Fraud in the Family Business

The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners expects employee embezzlement to increase by 71 percent over the next 12 months. Is your family business prepared?

One of the simplest steps to take is regularly checking your bank statements. “I know that those of you that are business owners may think, ‘Oh, I don’t have time, I have people to do this for me,’ but I will tell you, you will catch a lot of things if you periodically run and check the bank statement, just scroll through and see what a few things are,” says Kristen Spence, Fraud & Litigation Manager for Hungerford Nichols CPAs + Advisors.  

Other topics discussed during the 30-minute podcast include how to spot red flag warnings in payroll operations, securely manage manufacturing inventory, and reduce risk by implementing proper internal controls.

Those formal internal controls are especially important for small family-run businesses, says Katy Felver, Business Advisor for Hungerford Nichols CPAs + Advisors.  “It’s a little bit more challenging to put internal controls in place [but] it is possible,” she says. “And it isn’t because I don’t trust you, it’s because we’ve got to have each other’s backs. We always have to make sure that we’ve got it like you’re watching me, I’m watching you. We’ve got transparency and honesty going on,” continued Felver.

For any business owner, there is no substitute for knowing your employees and knowing what’s going on.

“Kind of my motto is when you’re a business owner, if you’re able, keep your finger on the pulse of what’s going on in your organization,” Spence says. “And a good way to do that is, honestly, hang around the water cooler. Get to know your employees. And if they are comfortable with you, eventually, they will start telling you things that they wish they had told you,” she stated.

Spence and Felver shared their advice for managing fraud risk when they were interviewed by Sheri Welsh for The Welsh Wire podcast, sponsored by the Family Business Alliance.

Banking Relationships that Make an Impact to your Bottom Line

Family-owned small businesses face lots of challenges. 2K Tool, founded 15 years ago by Heidi Smith and her son Kevin, has navigated a path to growth and success by having a productive partnership with their banker, Old National Bank. “I think that partnering with a banker who understands your industry is very important, [who] understands the manufacturing industry a lot, and you have to click in a way that you trust the relationship, too,” Heidi says.

2K Tool is an innovative leader in custom machining and mold making. It has 25 employees in Grand Rapids, including Heidi’s husband, her daughter Amanda, who serves as operations manager, and Heidi’s son-in-law Aric.

New Research Suggests Family Business Profit in Risk Taking

Family businesses perform better in highly competitive environments if they invest in risky activities like mergers and acquisitions, according to new research on risk aversion versus performance in family-owned firms.

Ana Gonzalez, Director of the Family Owned Business Institute and Assistant Professor at the Management Department at Grand Valley State University, talked about her findings when she was interviewed by Sheri Welsh for The Welsh Wire podcast, sponsored by the Family Business Alliance.

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