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Who Should Get The Real Estate?

Published May 30, 1992 Randy Bliss |

Julie Robinson has tears in her eyes and anger in her voice as she talks about her brother, Tom Robinson Jr. "He has absolutely no respect for his father, that's why he did this," she says, looking o...

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How to Woo Your Banker

Published May 30, 1992 Bernard H. Tenenbaum |

The scene is familiar to many bankers. The owner of a family business walks into the bank one morning and announces, "My daughter and I just decided we want to open a new store." This owner is look...

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What My Father and I Never Said to Each Other

Published May 30, 1992 Daniel Paisner |

My father owns a textile business. It was his father's once. And because I am the first son, it could have been mine. But I've chosen to do something else for a living, and I think about that more and...

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Greed and Animosity in the Second Generation

Published May 30, 1992 Leon Danco |

In my 30 years of advising family companies, the problems I have seen have multiplied with the number of people who have a stake in the firm. In the old days, when a business was growing like a baby b...

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From One-Man Band to Orchestra Leader

Published May 30, 1992 Lila A. Lewey |

In every first-generation family business there comes a critical point when the owneroperator has to acknowledge the need for a management team. The business can no longer be run by one or two people ...

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The Value of a Covenant Not to Compete

Published March 30, 1992 Tom Ochsenschlager |

A NON-COMPETE covenant is one of the most important intangible assets of a familyowned business. Yet in negotiations for the sale of some businesses, it is frequently overlooked byboth the buyer, who...

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Tough Love and The Buyout Agreement

Published March 30, 1992 Mike Cohn |

“Trust in God, but tie your camel first” is an old Sufi proverb that family business owners should heed when considering an ownership transfer. Even when giving the business to your children or se...

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How Marsha Sees It

Published March 30, 1992 Marsha Marson Moller |

Marsha Marson Moller, 35, is a vice-president of Newcan. In an interview, she offers her own view of the succession process at Newcan and the difficulty of preparing to follow in the footsteps of her...

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Passing On A Partnership

Published March 30, 1992 Howard Muson |

Five guys named Vellano in the sewer business had good reason to break out the champagne at the start of 1992. Early in January their fathers signed a buyout agreement under which the five cousins &m...

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Will Your Business Survive a Divorce?

Published March 30, 1992 Patricia G. Miller |

The national divorce rate is approaching 50 percent. To anyone but divorce lawyers that's an unsettling statistic. To the family business owner, it can have a particularly unpleasant taste: Divorce a...

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My Daughter, My Successor

Published March 30, 1992 David M. Marson |

Our business was started in 1900 by my grandfather. He was succeeded by my father, who actively ran the company until the mid-1950s. My brother, Richard, and I are our parents' only children; I a...

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Empowering New Leaders in the Midst of a Storm

Published March 30, 1992 Peter Davis |

Not All Family businesses have done poorly in this recession. Business has never been better in the past two years for a number of lean-and-mean, market-driven, quality firms, and coming out of the ec...

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Friendly Investors Who Have The Deal For You

Published March 30, 1992 Noel Urben |

Many owners of family businesses continue to believe that in order to get a substantial amount of the value of their business in cash they must offer the company's stock publicly or sell the entire c...

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How to Make an ESOP Work

Published March 30, 1992 Stephen J. Simurda |

For some time, J. Walter Kisling's relatives had been getting on hiscase. Kisling is chairman and CEO of the Multiplex Co., in Ballwin, Missouri, which makesrefrigerated-beverage dispensing equipment...

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When Choosing Advisors, You Deserve the Best

Published March 30, 1992 Leon Danco |

When choosing a doctor, an auto mechanic, or a spouse, a business owner would not settle for second best. Yet, when it comes to outside advisors — accountants, lawyers, bankers, insurance people —...

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Executive Perks

Published March 30, 1991 Stan Luxenberg |

As tax time approaches, family business owners are busily undertaking numerous exercises to figure out how to reduce the company's tax burden. Often, these examinations lead to a second inquiry: how ...

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Secrets of the Orient

Published March 1, 1991 Joel Kotkin |

No one quite knows who came up with the formula. Somewhere along his family's multi-generational line of doctors, one of Yasuo Fuji's ancestors concocted an herbal formula that seemed almost miraculo...

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Why Listen to the Dumb Relatives?

Published March 1, 1991 Peter Davis |

Over time in family firms, it becomes harder and harder to keep everyone happy. Young family members who see little prospect of ever running the business think about leaving. Family stockholders in ...

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Warming Up to Teach the Next Generation

Published March 1, 1991 Leon Danco |

The conversation starts innocently, but may come as a bolt of lightning. The business owner wanders into the office of a trusted senior manager — let's call him Old Joe — and announces: "You know ...

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When Family Shareholders Want Out

Published March 1, 1991 Harvey D. Shapiro |

Death, it sometimes seems, may be the easiest way out of a family business. With proper attention to insurance, succession, and estate planning, those who leave this vale of tears can also depart from...

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