The big news in baseball this week didn’t take place on the field. Out in Dodgerland in sunny LA, a major family dispute has brought that business to it’s knees.

Frank And Jamie McCourt, the owners of the Dodgers are at war. Their irresponsible management of the team followed by a pugnacious divorce forced the commissioner of Major League baseball to step in and take over the operations of the team.

The way I see it, nobody was ever minding the store. The owners lived in an alternate reality and demonstrated sheer lunacy. They ran the business into the ground and nobody was watching.

Give someone else the keys

Such can be the case with family businesses. The owner reports to no one. Family distractions, being in over their heads, poor leadership skills and ego can produce horrible decisions. Who’s going to tell the emperor he has no clothes?

To avoid the pitfalls inherent in family business ownership decision making, get yourself a boss. Or at least make sure someone is looking over your shoulder.

Suggestions to protect you from yourself -

1. Build a trusted Board of Advisers and give them some real authority to veto bad decisions
2. Appoint an official arbitrator to settle disputes between family members quickly and in the best interests of the business
3. Find a great accountant and attorney and report to them on a monthly basis. Allow them complete access to your books and have them each conduct a surprise audit once a year.

Owners of family businesses are in the enviable position of having greater control over their lives. But you’re human. You make mistakes. You don’t know everything. You have family problems. And you have a healthy ego or you couldn’t run a business.

*************************************************************************

Smart marketers know personalization

A recent survey of marketers around the country show that the benefits of personalized marketing – online and offline – has been embraced: