The world’s oldest form of business partnership is alive and well. In fact it is thriving and growing. It is the business partnership of two people who live together; they are called copreneurs.

Copreneurs make a powerful business team. Their special relationship brings a unique synergy to their company. They also face unique pitfalls. It is not an easy task to critique the work of the one you love. The business relationship can easily consume the personal relationship. And then there is the question of how to divvy up the workload.

A well developed and documented Strategic Action Plan that is used on a daily basis goes a long way to alleviating many challenges facing copreneurs. It provides them with something to point to other than each other!

A Strategic Action Plan is a working document that provides the road map to manage and control the growth of the company. It defines the long term measurable objectives for the company and links them to specific actions to be taken in the next year. It is the glue that keeps the partnership together.

It is always assumed that because copreneurs share a very close relationship they also share the same vision for the company. This is not necessarily true and so the first step in the development of the Strategic Action Plan is to clearly define the company’s Mission Statement. There are two kinds of mission statements. The first is a mission statement full of meaningless platitudes; this is easy to develop and quite useless. A real mission statement tells the reader what the company does, who it serves and what sets it apart from the competition. This type of mission statement is very difficult to write but is an essential foundation for the Strategic Action Plan.

The next step in the planning process ensures that the copreneurs have a common vision of where they want their company to go in the future.

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There are nowhere near as many family businesses around as there used to be. They have given way to larger corporations and companies that seem to have very few ties to the modern family. The majority of those family companies and businesses that still do exist are small businesses and may not necessarily have been established as a family business to begin with. However, if the owner wishes to sell the business to free up time or as a result of old age or a loss of interest, and a family member expresses an interest in buying should that owner sell?

Selling a business to family members can either be a harmonious transition that is completed in the best interests of all parties or an absolute nightmare that is worse than selling to a stranger. Whether this falls into the harmonious or nightmarish categories for you depend on the person you are selling it to, and also whether selling is in your best interests. However, you first need to know how to decide whether or not selling is right for you.

The Right Move?

Before selling a business to family members, you need to think about whether it is the right move for you. The first step in this process is evaluating why you are selling to begin with. If you do genuinely want to reduce your role within the company or retire from it and move on, then selling to a family member could be a smart move. For the first reason, it may be easier to negotiate a regular position within the company than if it was sold to a stranger who may not want you around. Similarly, if it is for the second reason then the business remains in your family and so relatives will continue your legacy.

However, if you are leaving a business for any other reason than your own free will then family members may not be the best people to sell to.

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On November 19, 2005, a day after having surgery, I was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma cancer. I would compare receiving the news to going to the dentist and being numbed. However, this numbed my whole body. For 20 minutes I rushed through all kinds of thoughts and emotions - shock, anger, “why me?” questions, sadness.

After the 20 minutes, I made a big decision. I decided to live. I decided that all of the emotions and thoughts I was experiencing were not supporting me. I decided right then and there to switch my mind and all actions to that of support and complete cure. At that moment, I was cured.

On January 31, 2006 I received my 33rd and final daily radiation treatment. I am now cancer free. I did not need the doctor to declare that for me; I had already made that decision from the day of diagnosis. I had even told my doctor that at my first appointment.

My whole life I have believed in the power of the mind. The ability to create your outer life from thoughts and emotions from within are undeniable. Nothing is as powerful as your personal philosophy in life. The good news is that your personal philosophy is simply decided by you and your own free will.

In my lifetime, I have been both poor and rich. I have had both sad and happy times. I have lived through tragedies and triumphs. One thing that has never wavered has been my mental approach to whatever has come towards me. Nothing can create wealth and abundance in any segment of a person’s life more than their attitudes and thoughts.

I have seen materially rich people with great poverty of mind and I have seen people in great struggles with an attitude of abundance. Wealth and possessions can flee in an instant, but nothing or nobody can take away your mind and your choice of thought.

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