Family Business Sector report

Guest blog from Richard Farnsworth, Private Business and Private Clients, Midlands

The Institute for Family Business have recently released their Family Business Sector report, highlighting family firm's £1.1 trillion revenues and 9.2M UK jobs. Dr Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills shows his support for this sector and states that the Government is firmly on the side of family businesses.

From my own perspective, I see from my client base in this area how important family businesses are to the UK economy, especially for the way that they have been, and continue to be able to take a long term approach to all aspects of business life. This is manifested in looking at the strong balance sheets that many family businesses have built up, having in many cases not been reliant on bank debt and highly leveraged transactions but instead building up cash reserves which make them very well placed to cope in tougher economic times. Taken together with their strong commitment to their workforce and communities we have also seen family businesses continuing to invest in their employees and come up with creative and innovative ways to manage their cost base without making significant numbers redundant. Taken all together it means that, though family businesses are as exposed to the current economic climates as every other business, they do have the skills, tenacity and experience to survive and prosper in the future.  

Read this interesting insight into the Family Business sector and let me know your thoughts:

http://www.ifb.org.uk/media/152155/theukfamilybusinesssectorpressnov2011.pdf

Comments

[Grant Gordon]

The launch of the IFB Family Business Sector report was welcomed by Secretary of State for Business Dr Vince Cable, at it's launch in Westminster in November when he praised family firms for their "long-term approach". In a separate Government report, Mid-Sized Business Growth, family businesses were noted for their "steady performance". These recent reports are helping to spotlight the value to the UK economy of having a robust family business sector.