Family businesses have emerged from the recession swinging and poised for growth.
This according to a PwC report released Friday that showed 66% of Canadian family businesses have experienced modest to significant growth in demand in the last year.
That’s compared with 45% of other businesses that say they’ve experienced demand growth in the last 12 months.
“Family businesses are good at focusing on long-term relationships – with employees, customers, suppliers and service providers such as banks – and those relationships carry them through the tough times,” comment Tahir Ayub, Canadian leader of PwC’s private company services practice.
In fact, 70% of the report’s respondents said they believe being a family business helped them weather the recession, and now 66% of family businesses plan to grow in the next year.
Despite the good news, PwC said challenges lay ahead for family businesses.
For example, 56% of family businesses said recruiting skilled employees is their top internal challenge, though that figure is down from 64% who said the same thing in 2007.
Succession planning is also top of mind for family businesses, with 27% anticipating a change of ownership in the next five years.
But according to the report, nearly half of family businesses surveyed for the report had yet to choose their company’s next leader.
Check out this week’s edition of Business in Vancouver for more about family business, and how succession planning can help family businesses outperform non-family businesses (see “Brotherly love and business challenges” – issue 1110, February 1 to 7).