Small businesses are often managed and majorly owned by a family. Who better to trust with something as important as your livelihood than your loved ones, right? Family-managed businesses, however, have some implications that set it apart from other types of businesses, one of which is the holding of board meetings. This article will further explore how to host a functional family board meeting with your family office.
Prepare Your Family Board Meeting Agenda
Conducting a meeting with your loved ones can be fun. However, too much comfort can distract you and your family from the purpose of your meeting. Preparing an agenda for your family board meeting can help you keep track of the progress of your meeting. It will also give you a direction on the things you need to discuss and streamline processes.
- Date and time of the meeting
- Topics to be discussed
- People responsible for each topic
- Allocated time for each topic
- People expected to attend the agenda
Follow The Meeting Schedule
You should arrive on time at the venue of your board meeting. During the actual conference, try as best as you can to follow the schedule that you have set up. By doing so, you can save time and allocate more time to more important subjects in your meeting. Here is a step-by-step procedure on how to formulate a meeting schedule:
Step 1: List all the topics that will be covered during the meeting. Try to be as specific as possible. Also, arrange the topics in a way that the flow of discussion makes sense.
Step 2: Create a schedule that you will use to determine the amount of time needed to discuss each topic thoroughly. It is better to do this with someone to increase the accuracy of the schedule. Also, add an additional allowance time buffer for each topic. Adding an allowance time buffer will reduce the probability of underestimating each subject.
Keeping Up To date Records
The vast majority of the time the business’ financial metrics are reviewed and discussed during family board meetings. The main reason this happens is so that the board members can have clarity on how the business is financially performing so that they can make informed decisions. This means that it is absolutely imperative that you always have up-to-date financial records. Keeping your small business accounting up-to-date can be extremely tasking for small business owners due to the many other day-to-day obligations you already have on your plate. Let our seasoned team of small business bookkeepers take your small business’ accounting tasks off of your plate.
After hours of discussing dozens of subjects about your business, everyone can forget some things that were said and agreed upon. A lot of times this can result in future conflicts regarding missed tax and accounting deadlines. Keeping an accurate record of the “meeting minutes” can serve as proof of the agreements made during the session.
Family Board Meeting and Family Office Accounting Services
During your family board meeting avoid trying to over-talk each other. It is best if you have some system to determine who has the right to speak during each moment. This procedure prevents chaos during the meeting and makes everything more organized. It also allows everyone to have a moment to speak their minds.
Our knowledgeable team of small business CFO advisers is able to provide top-notch small business advisory services. We can work with you and your family to create financial strategies geared towards first stabilization and then scaling your business. Our small business CPAs can also help identify potential financial opportunities that may be missed by family board members.
Being an outsourced solution, our team of small business accountants is able to have an unbiased approach when working with you and your family to resolve financial roadblocks within the business.
We can also help you navigate your family office accounting software systems, contact us to learn more.
This blog article is not intended to be the rendering of legal, accounting, tax advice or other professional services. Articles are based on current or proposed tax rules at the time they are written and older posts are not updated for tax rule changes. We expressly disclaim all liability in regard to actions taken or not taken based on the contents of this blog as well as the use or interpretation of this information. Information provided on this website is not all-inclusive and such information should not be relied upon as being all-inclusive.
