Family Name vs. Family Business

Articles

Many years ago I was asked by some former business owners to assist them with a unique problem. They had run a family business for many years and the name of the business was the family’s name. This is actually not an uncommon situation. They had sold the business a few years before meeting me and were experiencing concerns about the use of the family’s name in connection with the business. The new owners had not been operating the business very well, with quality falling and customer complaints. The problem for the former owners was that this poor reputation was flowing to them, as friends and acquaintances were commenting on how bad the business had become. Since the business name was the family name, they were suffering reputational damage and didn’t like it one bit.

So they came to me to see if I could help them with their problem.

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