Fifty, 62, 77, 93, 99, 144. These are not lottery numbers, but rather are the number of years some truck parts distributors have been owned and run by the same family. Those are amazing numbers given the statistics about how many businesses fail after being passed from one generation to the next.
While researching this issue’s cover story (see page 16) I learned that 30 percent of family businesses successfully transfer from the first generation to the second, 13 percent from the second to the third and one percent from the third to the fourth.
So what is it about truck parts distributors that has them beating the odds? I think it is three things: planning, passion and respect.
The family business experts I interviewed for my article told me that many, if not most, family-owned businesses do not have succession plans in place. Business owners don’t want to think about retiring and therefore they have no exit strategy.
Unfortunately none of us lives forever, and failing to have a plan for the orderly succession of your business could result in your business failing should something happen to you.
The distributors I spoke with all were part of succession plans by their parents, who in some cases were part of the succession plan of their parents.
