Emotional and Financial Wellness in the Family Business: Powerful reflections that will strengthen your family and business

By Reny Recarte

Is it possible to enjoy being with the family and working together? How easy is to make business decisions when your family is involved? If you are part of a family business, you know the particular challenges that must be faced on a daily basis: confusing roles, dysfunctional communication, mixed feelings, antagonistic expectations...

This book is a breath of fresh air that will help you find the necessary balance between love for your family and business discipline. It contemplates situations that are experienced in family businesses from its creation to the generational transition.

Reny Recarte, based on biblical principles, real cases, academic knowledge and his own experience, delivers in a simple and delightful way 55 reflections with practical advice to improve professional performance, encourage family understanding and prepare for transcendence.

This content will make it easier for you to identify opportunities for improvement in relation to: governance bodies, patrimonial shielding mechanisms, family constitution, succession plan, social awareness, strategic planning, financial and legal aspects.

Remember that your daily work goes beyond today, you are building a spiritual, emotional and financial legacy through your family business!

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Nov 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9798385010837

Reny Recarte

Reny Recarte is businesswoman, consultant, and university professor. Her multidisciplinary training allows him to work with family businesses from a broad professional approach. Since she was very young, she has been part of a family business, so she knows first-hand the special dynamics that exist in this type of company. She is Senior Consultant certified by the Inter-American Development Bank in training and consulting for family businesses. She has advised companies that are run by their founders as well as multigenerational companies. She leads the Family Business Forum of the Integral Development Continuous Training Center. She gives conferences internationally and also is the founder of Transcendence of Love a non-profit organization that teaches new generations to be entrepreneurs by providing them with spiritual, cognitive and financial resources to develop their full potential.

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Copyright © 2023 Reny Recarte.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a non-fiction book. Unless otherwise indicated, the author and publisher make no explicit guarantees about the accuracy of the information contained in this book, in all cases the names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

844-714-3454

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

ISBN: 979-8-3850-1082-0 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-3850-1083-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023920317

WestBow Press rev. date:  12/04/2023

To Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior

and my family for their unconditional support

Contents

Acknowledgment

Introduction

I Intrinsic Nature of the Family Business

1 Dreaming of a Better Life

2 The Birth of a Daughter Named Business

3 The DNA of the Family Business

4 Together and Somewhat Scrambled

5 Neither Good nor Bad, It all Depends

6 Two Sides of the Same Coin

7 In the Same Boat

8 Agreeing to the Discrepancy

9 Alexithymia in the Family Business

10 Deep Cleaning

11 Where do I Start to Order the Family Business?

II Being part of the Family Business

12 Up and Down

13 What Lucky Parents!

14 Clear Rules, Long Friendships

15 Second Versus Third

16 More Managers than Employees

17 First my Teeth and Then my Relatives

18 An Additional Little-Mentioned System

19 Equity Versus Equality

20 Age Does Matter

21 Full Clarity

22 Barbie is not the Same as Barbara

III Family Business Governance

23 Permanent Change

24 The Bigger, the More Complex

25 Comprehensive Planning

26 Strong Foundation

27 Strategic Actions

28 Caring for the Business Family

29 The Biggest Ones

30 The Offspring

31 The Bosses

32 Eagles Nest

33 Careful Selection

IV Resources for Sustainable Growth on Family Business

34 The Intangible is Evident

35 GPS for Decision Making

36 Against Hurricanes

37 Put in Common

38 Permeating Excellence

39 It is the Race, not the Finish Line

40 Vegetables in the Soup

41 Taking Care of the Piggy

42 Standing up to Disagreement

43 It Helps or Hurts you

44 Patrimonial Shielding

V Transcendence of the Family Business

45 The Real Motivation

46 From Hands to Hands

47 Change or Be Changed

48 The Greatest Test of Leadership

49 Relay Race

50 An entrepreneur is born or made?

51 Impacting Your Environment

52 Business Myopia

53 The Eagle Renewal

54 Priorities

55 Legacy

Bibliographic References

Acknowledgment

My gratitude, respect, and love for:

Marcia F. Quiróz Flores, for giving her best every day as a mother and family businesswoman. Her example and guidance have inspired me to endeavor myself to achieve my dreams.

Francisco J. Matamoros, my husband, colleague, and private editor who enriched the content of this book through his permanent feedback.

Karla J. Benavente Orellana, for encouraging me to write and supporting me in my early years as an entrepreneur.

Diana Maribel Galdámez, my dear aunt for her appreciated collaboration with the revision of the english version of the book.

I deeply thank the business families who have opened their doors to me and given me invaluable lessons.

My gratitude to you, for buying this book and taking the time to share with me through your reading, thank you very much!

Introduction

The family business is the force that moves the world economy and at the same time is one of the most sensitive and interesting systems that exist. It has also demonstrated its resilience by coming out ahead of the Covid 19 pandemic.

If you are part of a family business, whether you are involved in its management or not, the content of this book will surely help you: clear up doubts, understand better, make decisions more solvency and, above all, strengthen both your family and business ties.

I have experienced the issue of the family business firsthand; I know the successes and failures that can occur. I have also had the great honor of supporting many business families through consultancy, for which I have become aware of the mistakes that are frequently made in this environment, errors that, although they arise from good intentions, end up weakening both the company and the family.

Understanding the unique situations that we experience as part of a family business is more common than we think it relieves the stress of believing that we are dysfunctional as a family. It will also allow us to prepare ourselves better to face the different stages that usually occur in the natural evolution of a family business.

It is important to put on the table some disturbing issues that are difficult to address due to the emotional connotations that characterize them, such as: who can work in the family business, how benefits will be assigned for each position, when a promotion is correct, who will define the responsibilities of relatives who work in the company, the process of evaluating the organizational structure, how business decisions should be made, the action of dismissal of a relative, the economic security of the founder when the generational transfer occurs, among others.

Below I will share with you words of life from the Bible, the counseling book par excellence, learning from the experience of others and my own of the implications of being a member of a business family, and advice based on real cases of family businesses that have overcome obstacles and have managed to grow stronger in the process. For reasons of confidentiality, every name of individuals and companies have been changed.

The format of this book encourages personal reflection, dialogue with members of the business family and decision-making through the application of its content.

I know that all the effort and sacrifice you have made to move your family business forward has been with the genuine desire to provide the best for your family.

Let us have faith and do what is right for those we love, and for our little hen that lays the golden eggs, which is the family business.

Remember that you don’t have to kill the hen or the party is over, and you don’t have to neglect the family because otherwise you lose the meaning of having golden eggs.

With God’s help; the emotional wellness of the family and the economic growth of the company are possible, dare today to make decisions to achieve transcendence!

I

Intrinsic Nature of the Family Business

Welcome to a journey in which we will analyze together the peculiar dynamics that occur in the family business. Knowing the different components of this will allow us to clarify who we are as individuals, families, and companies.

The family business is usually born as a result of the dream of its founder, as time passes, the natural growth of the family and the business intertwine, starting a hybrid institution; where