Olson Wealth Group’s Post

On this Father’s Day, my hope is for more family business alignment. In the 16th century, Sir Thomas More coined the phrase “can’t see the wood for the trees” (in today’s English we would say forest instead of wood) to describe the narrow focus we frequently adopt. We are so preoccupied with the details of a situation that we overlook the bigger picture. As a family business advisor for over two decades, I am not at all surprised when I hear that "the other generation can’t see the wood for the trees”. It impacts all family members when one generation feels they are not being “heard” or “respected” because their parents or children have a WIIFM (what’s in it for me) viewpoint. Everyone becomes so engrossed in the details of the problem that they lose perspective and miss what is truly important to the family unit. Sure, every family has its complex relationships and miscommunication that “gets under someone’s skin”. There is a tendency to judge others based on things they may have said or done many years earlier. Having a family business complicates communication further. Families in business together have even more to consider, and the outcome of their debates impacts many more people, including employees and customers. One of the most complex relationships in a family business is that of father and son, especially when it comes to planning for an intergenerational transition of the business. The senior generation often has doubts about passing the torch to a nexgen who doesn’t have the benefit of 30 or 40 years of wisdom and experience. To the seasoned business owner, it’s like handing the wheel of a car to someone who just received their driver’s licence. They feel that Junior doesn’t yet have enough experience to deal with adverse road conditions like economic turmoil, changes in regulations, or global competition. Yet Junior likely has an excellent education and lots of ideas for growing the business and leading it into the next century. When he shares those ideas or pushes for significant changes to infrastructure or investment in technology, fear rises in the senior generation that all their hard-earned wealth, their retirement lifestyle and the jobs they have created for the community might be lost. Two parties with differing ideas regarding innovation, business direction and change, or one family member who doesn’t meet performance expectations and another who fails to mentor, can negatively impact family relationships and have a detrimental effect on the future success of the business. At #D3LearningSolutions we work with both generations to focus on the bigger picture, embrace the divergent thinking, identify compatible interests and then develop a plan to achieve their common purpose. Ask us how! #fambiz #familybusiness #familyenterprise #nextgen #succession #conflict #familiness #alignment #compatibility #divergentthinking #miscommunication Image credit: Roxana Jones

I have the distinct honor of working with a number of small business owners as a coach (in addition to those I work with in my law practice). It’s really fulfilling to help small business owners grow their enterprise and serve their communities more impactfully. One of the biggest challenges I see small business owners struggle with is pricing. Contrary to what many may believe, business owners often struggle with pricing out their products and services. And it’s not due to a lack of value. Rather, there's a disconnect between the value and the business owner’s perception of it. Small business owners can sometimes be our own worst enemy. If we lack confidence in our value, prospective customers will sense that. But if we boldly and unapologetically proclaim what our mission is and who we want to serve, we are more likely to attract those people and do business with them. What I love helping my fellow entrepreneurs do is close the gap between the objective value of what they do, and their own perception of it. And practically what that often translates to is adjusting their pricing. Because of the disconnected perception of their value, many small business owners are charging too low. By doing that, it’s easy to become burned out and even resentful toward what we used to love. This is especially true for fully-entrepreneurial households. But when pricing for products and services more closely reflects the actual value provided, the business is more profitable. When the business is more profitable, the owner can better provide for the household. When the household is better provided for, there is greater peace of mind overall for the business owner. When there is greater peace of mind, new creative energy and enthusiasm is unlocked. He or she can then create new product or service offerings that have been stuck in the idea phase for years. Or hire on the help that’s desperately needed. Or any number of things that have been mere aspirations, but never a real possibility. This logic applies to W-2 employees as well. When you reflect on the value you provide to your employer, you’re going to think more critically about compensation level. Perhaps you’re underpaid. But how do you know? Seeing the difference that you’re making with your employer and what comparable positions pay is a good place to start. If you feel like your skill set is lacking, start developing new skills so that you become more versatile and valuable. The best way to stay employed is to become indispensable. So small business owners, I know it can be scary to reflect on what you’re charging and to consider charging more. But odds are, you’re undercutting yourself by not pricing in line what your business value really is. Maybe, just maybe, you need to raise both your price point AND your value. Deliver more to your customers, and always seek to be improving no matter what season of life your business is in. Whatever you do, do it with excellence.

🧑🏽💻👩💻 Building a small family Business Together 🧑🧑🧒🧒🇦🇺 💼 I want to share a special part of our journey: how a family business became the business of our dreams. Together with my wife Priyanka Sen we’ve turned Nubevest and Skillset Australia into successful enterprises. I started Nubevest and Skillset Australia with a vision. When Priya joined me, our combined efforts brought fresh energy and new ideas. Here’s how we made it happen: 👀 Shared Vision: Priya and I created a vision that matches our personal values and professional goals. This unity has been our guiding light. 🤝Complementary Skills: We bring different strengths to the table. I focus on IT and financial planning for Nubevest, while Priya handles administrative tasks, deals with outstanding invoices, and ensures customer satisfaction for Skillset Australia. This balance has been key to our growth. 🙍♀️Empowering Women: Since Priya joined, we’ve been able to focus on Skillset Australia’s mission of helping women and girls enter healthcare and childcare. Under her leadership, our team has grown from 2 to 12 talented women, making a real difference in our community. 📈Diverse Business: Nubevest started with website and digital marketing services but now also offers IT solutions, cybersecurity, rent-a-car services, and IT hardware. This growth shows our commitment to meeting the varied needs of our clients. 🎗️Supportive Partnership: Our support for each other, both at work and at home, has been the foundation of our success. We tackle challenges together and celebrate our wins as a team. 🫶🏽Community Impact: We believe in giving back. Our dedication to various charitable initiatives and fostering a culture of social responsibility reflects our core values. Running a family business has its challenges, but it’s incredibly rewarding. The trust, mutual respect, and shared goals that Priya and I bring to our work have made our business a true labor of love. It’s about more than just financial success; it’s about creating something meaningful and impactful. Our journey has been extraordinary, and we’re excited about the future. With each milestone, we’re reminded of the power of teamwork and the incredible possibilities that arise when life partners become business partners. Join us in celebrating the power of family, collaboration, and vision. Here’s to many more milestones and continued success! https://lnkd.in/gaMxNVyd www.nubevest.com.au www.nuber.au www.monitormart.com.au #FamilyBusiness #Teamwork #Entrepreneurship #Success #Inspiration #BusinessGrowth #Empowerment #nubevest #skillsetaustralia

Teaching your kids about business is more than just preparing them for a successful career – it's about instilling valuable life skills. By learning the basics of entrepreneurship, children gain confidence, creativity and a sense of responsibility. Here are four ways you can help set them up for success. - Teach them financial literacy - Let them learn from their mistakes - Take them to work with you - Start their own business Read our latest article to find out more. #FinancialLiteracy #NextGen #RaymondJamesUK

I used to think that “passing down the family business” meant parents just handed the company keys to their kids. The truth is that family succession isn’t easy. There’s truth behind the adage of keeping business separate from friends and family. Money layered with family dynamics can make the best of advisors feeling that they need to solve a riddle inside a puzzle inside an enigma. Family succession does provide a buyer who may have intimate knowledge of the company and its people. But it doesn’t alleviate the parents’ wealth trapped in the company. They’re often funding their next phase by selling their business. The kids generally enjoy some favorable terms, maybe a break in price or will their parents financing. In talking with many family advisors, their struggle often comes down to lack of communication. The parents and kids don’t talk about succession till the parents are ready to move on. They’re surprised to learn that the children don’t want it. They shouldn’t. Studies show the less than half of family owned businesses survive into the second generation. Family business owners must plan their exit like any other business. Succession may be an option, but it’s not as easy as handing the kids the keys.

Teens to Adults   As a business professional, but not from a business family, I would always wonder what the primary tangible objective of a business is. Some said shareholder returns, some profitability, some scale, other valuations, etc. Till I figured that the right metric is RoCE (Return on Capital Employed), which is to make more profit (Earnings before Interest and Tax) with less capital (both debt and equity).   In my career of having watched many a business so far, I’ve seen businesses go through 7 phases, much like life. Business is like you growing up, capital acts like parents and RoCE an indicator of maturity.   In womb: When RoCE is -ve during the early stages. This is when you are in dire need of external capital for life support. Equity acts like a mother, keeping you alive. When large businesses don’t turn a profit as yet, it’s against the law of nature.   Baby: From womb, you spring to life. You are breakeven. A business is born, though still a baby. Mother equity is happy. You don’t need her for life support but you cling onto her anyways.   Infancy: It’s when RoCE is positive but does not recover the cost of debt (like early to mid-single digits). You have grown but not enough to support yourself, still need both parents, particularly mother equity. She teaches you the ways of life.   Kid: Now, RoCE is just more than the cost of debt, hence generating some return to equity. So, the equity holding father gets something but not happy as yet, there isn’t much to show off. Like the late single digit RoCEs.   Teens: It’s when the RoCE is in its early teens. And like the teen years, choices are important for you. What you decide to do here with capital bearing parents will likely make the parents happy forever or go downhill from there. Choices could vary from capital allocation (like how you allocate time to studies vs other vocations) to new businesses (which academic institution you go to) and organization building (friends you keep from now on).   Adolescence: RoCE is now in its late teens. Life choices have been made and the business in you likely well set to be a star. Parents (both debt and equity) are happy but still dream of your adult years.   Adults: RoCE touching 20 or more.  You’ve now made it in life and business. Mother debt is ready and longing to embrace you anytime, though you get precious little time with her. Father equity wears you proudly as his shining achievement in life. And you start dreaming of being parents now, much like businesses at that stage generating enough cash to fund (or lend to) other businesses.   For a business traversing from teens to hopefully adults, OfBusiness and Oxyzo Financial Services could not be at a more crucial phase in life. Choices now will shape us forever.   #lifeatofbusiness #lifeatoxyzo

'How do you stay focused and consistent in your business?' A theme that came up in yesterday’s Finance Therapy Circle⭕ Which, I’m happy to report, went off without any of the hitches from June’s event - you do live and learn, afterall. I did, however, have two different zoom links in the invite, so I’m looking forward to reporting next month’s inevitable mistake in 4 weeks time (follow to watch me f-up community building in public👍) The group shared these challenges whilst building a business : ❔Shifting from ‘learning mode’ ❔Family life and parental responsibilities ❔Income (or lack there of) to keep food on the table Here’s 8 pearls of wisdom offered amongst our members during the session:  (These are valid if you’re facing role and career changes in the workplace too!)  ⁉Have a strong, honest why. Dig deep and be clear on what problem you’re solving.  What are you standing against by building this business? ⏳Time commitment. How much time are you putting aside to do your business? Are you taking action on what you already know? How are you moving from consumer to creator? 🆘Ask for help. Find ways to resource yourself. Noone does it all alone. Money isn’t your only resource: i.e Exchange time for coaching if you can’t pay for help, reach out to potential mentors. 📌Build community where you are living. Network and build close relationships with people who are in the same place as you, steps ahead or where you want to be. Please be mindful, and don’t be solely takers in these spaces, give well and you will receive well! 👨👩👧👦 What are you willing to sacrifice to get to where you want to be? Have a family meeting with those it’s going to impact. Prioritise yourself and your business, cutting down on unnecessary things that don’t align or give you the time, money or freedom to invest in yourself. 🤓Fall in love with the process of being bad at it. No one gets good without being bad at it first. You don’t expect a child to come out running out of the womb, why do you expect your business to solve all your problems when it’s still an infant/child? 🛠Do the thing. Taking action is learning. It’s the fastest way to upskill yourself, put yourself and your business out there and make progress all at the same time. It's easy to stall, thinking we need to learn more first and spend money to get ‘certified’ to be credible. Don't underestimate the power of lived experience. 🧘♀️Be patient. Good things take time. Our business' have cycles, honour them. What did we miss? Drop your top focus and consistency tips👇 PS. We’ll be gathering again on 17th August, 5.30pm BST.  Sign up link in the comments.  #FinanceTherapy #Healing #entrepreneurs #solopreneurs #coach #money

Livvy and I had a lovely time at the park earlier this week it was so good to just be out in nature and clear my head. But somethings been on my heart that I wanted to share. Being a mum full time and working has certainly had its challenges and at times our days don’t go the way I plan them. It brings up the question a lot of how can we do it all and make it work? As mothers, can we really have it all? For me personally it’s always doing the best we can. I’m not shy of hard work, but I admit that somewhere along the line I’ve taken on the idea of others ( not intentionally ) that we can work less and get paid more. I’ve personally yet to experience this. My small business has served me well over the years allowing me to be present as a mother more than being in a job ever would lend itself too. But, things have changed over the last 18 months -2 years. I don’t know if any other small business owners can relate? Every client I work with, every project I work on is an income that directly allows myself and my family to live. I thought twice about posting this, but asked myself why, and the one thing that came to mind strongly was the fear of what others might think of me, say about me or that by sharing could put people off working with me. Maybe all of those three things harbour some truth. But, the one I CAN do something about is not to let the fear of what others think negatively impact me. I love the work I get to do. I love having my own business and the freedoms that offers to me as a working mum But let’s not sugar coat it. Running a business isn’t always a walk in the park. Finding time amongst being a mother isn’t always easy and at times you can feel so completely torn. But, I’ve been working for 7 years now with my business. I’m constantly learning, growing in my development, skillset and my education in ways that allow me to understanding myself, and support my clients. Making profit is great, we all want to make profit for sure, but truthfully, where I am right now in my business that’s not the reality. So when someone says they are going to work with you and commit to a project, retainer or service, and then they change their mind. It has a direct impact on whether I can even pay myself. I haven’t paid myself for months now. I still have outgoings as a business owner and at times I’ve questioned if I still should keep going, yeah I’m being really raw and honest. The stress and worry that can come with being a business owner, I don’t hear it spoken about so much. Yet behind the scenes I’m having these exact conversations with so many people. I work unsocialable hours yet again that I didn’t want to do, but it’s a necessary sacrifice for the short term. So I thought maybe just maybe if I start to speak out about it it might enourge others to do the same. 💕

How do successful business owners grow in 2024 and beyond? When we work with business owners, we notice that most of them are fire fighting everyday with some issue. It could be generating sales, collecting payment, operational issues, manpower, suppliers or customer service problems and the list goes on. 💥So many of them work IN the business and not ON the business. There is hardly any time for strategic planning. There's no strategic plans to tweak 10% of the processes to increase it by 90% of the value! So here are 4 very simple strategies and mindsets to shift. 1. Leverage on the use of other people's time Everyone has only 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. So our time and availability is finite. If we can do work that is worth $1000 per hour, we can delegate the work that is $10-20 per hour out to someone else. One of the things I was fortunate to have done was to hire a PA (Personal Asst). She has removed all the administrative issues from me and that has allowed me to grow 10x more than before! 2. Leverage on the network of others. In our family, social and business circle, we only have so much time to interact with that number of people in our lives. When we connect with others, they can bring a new value - network of people that we may not have on our own. This can bring the business to a different level. 3 Leverage on the use of other people's money. Successful business owners like to use other people's money so they raise more funds through issuance of bonds, shares, IPO etc and when there is more wealth, we can be smart in planning. Our own wealth has finite uses if we just solely focus on one thing at a time. However, if we are very clear of our objectives and values, we can reposition our resources to leverage the use of other people's money so that we can generate even more wealth. Just the other day, we helped a business to extract an extra $1M as a lump sum so they get to spend more in their retirement and lifetime! 4. Leverage on the use of other people's wisdom. Some lessons are probably better learnt from others than for us to have to go through the pain ourselves. And we look for great life coaches and mentors, we can shortcut our learning to a much shorter period, to achieve success the way we want! The future is bright like the background as long as you look beyond! Do you agree? What other strategies do you adopt? I am happy to hear, share, like and comment! #stewardofwealth #invest #mindset #BusinessGrowth #rewirement #purpose #transform #meaningfulwork #impactfulwork ♥️This take a PROCESS to plan, to TRANSFORM with a rewirement programme. And I can tell you it takes time. It takes effort to Unlearn to Relearn. We all want to be good stewards! My name is Greg and if there is someone who would like to transform, multiply their life, their business, their wealth, with PURPOSE, and have time for themselves, with less anxiety, pls feel free to share or reach out to me and repost too! I would sincerely appreciate it!

I am often reminded that 90% of third generation family businesses fail. However, when we take a closer look, many of these common reasons for failure can be mitigated. Applying the discipline of a third generation family office to your individual investing is also a great way to avoid future pitfalls and set yourself up for long term success. Below are our top 5 reasons for failure along with lessons you can learn from each of them. 1. Lack of succession planning: Family businesses that are successful plan well in advance. I started informally shadowing my grandfather at work when I was 7 years old. We talked about real estate and the business at the dinner table for as long as I can remember. I started formally working in real estate when I was 18 years old and intentionally acquired the skill sets needed to run the business. Lesson here: be intentional and have an idea of what will happen with your business / investments after you pass. 2. Dilution of vision: Our vision is to maintain or grow wealth per capita from one generation to the next. As much as the business is a vehicle for financial preservation of wealth, it is a vehicle to pass on the values that are important to our family. Every family is different but for us, it is first and foremost hard work. There are a few other values as well but we will do a separate post on this one later this year. Lesson here: know what your values are and manage your business / investments to align with that vision. Vision is also more than just financial goals. 3. Family conflict: When the family fights, the business suffers. We work on our relationships intentionally and proactively to avoid family conflict. Lesson here: minimize conflict in your life. It’s toxic to your health and the health of your investment portfolio. 4. Resistance to change: Every generation of the family business has to re-invent the business for the business to be successful over a long period of time. Innovation is key to continued success as markets and technology evolve. Lesson here: innovate, innovate, innovate. 5. Overdependence on the business: We value every person having a job and not solely relying on their family distributions. Every member of our third generation has a career they are passionate about. Lesson: Diversifying income streams will always lead to better outcomes over time. Kelly Chang Levine and I (pictured below at the opening of our hotel in July 2022) love talking to other family offices and family businesses. Always feel free to reach out to ideate on family office best practice in addition to real estate.