What is the success rate of family business ventures? And what obstacles hinder the success of some of these projects؟

Family business ventures are a double edged sword, if they do well, they will do exceptionally good, however, if they do bad, very quickly you will find yourself in probably the worst situation of your life. It is very complex and no business guide will tell you how to truly make this work, only the most experienced who has dabbled in this can really understand the issues on a micro level that most people will just ignore and those very issues will one day be the root cause of the business shutting down.

I have seen it first hand and have also seen it happening to others first hand also so I consider myself someone experienced with this. There are many obstacles and one of the first is the attitude of the family members - one rotten egg will spoil the whole dish as they say and it is the same for family businesses. Another big factor is the number of interference that is caused by family members. If you are unfortunate enough you might have family members who will not consider the business to be business at all but rather a personal bank account. There are just so many things to take in to account.

It all comes down to the fact is how close are the family members who are going to work together? how much they love and trust each other? will it be easy to turn them against each other with a little "persuasion"?. If the answer is no, then believe me when I say that family business ventures can be very successful and rewarding and can also build up empires for the next generation to take over when the time comes.

It is too complex to explain all of the things in writing for someone like me who has seen it all happen in this particular regard but I do hope what little I have shared can be of some help. All the best!

Thanks for your kind invitation.

Joint family work is achieved in:

Family cooperation. Compatibility between tendencies. Acknowledge that their goal is one. Consider family interest first.

Sacrifice for one goal.

But these things are not easy to do.

I fully agree with Mr. Owais Jaffar's excellent submission. In addition to his submission; many decisions may be taken spontaneously thus occurance of future disputes & misunderstandings relating to who made the decision, why & how it was made. Secondly, bureaucracy is yet another obstacle since many family members are involved of which consultations have to be made before making any decision however much small or insignificant it may be. Thirdly, internal conflicts within family members even at home may be transfered to work place or business & ultimately the business will bare the burden & risk of business failure. 

Thanx for the invitation