The legacy of Stanfield’s: Like most great entrepreneurs, Charles Stanfield was part inventor, part marketer and part gambler. When he started his textile business in 1856, the Maritimes were fertile ground for success \u2014 a fresh start from his native England. Four years ago Jon Stanfield took over the helm of the company that his great-great-grandfather founded 11 years before Canada became a nation.<\/p>\n
He immediately embarked on a program of new growth, expansion and innovation \u2014 the same kind of attention to detail that his ancestors have been showing for 150 years. \u201cEach generation of Stanfield\u2019s has its own challenges. But in the end my grandfather, my father and I, we\u2019re all the stewards of Charles Stanfield. Our growth philosophy doesn\u2019t change. We\u2019re always moving aggressively in the direction of new business,\u201d says Stanfield.<\/p>\n
That philosophy may explain how Stanfield\u2019s has managed to become one of the oldest and most respected family businesses in Atlantic Canada \u2014 but they\u2019re not alone.<\/p>\n
A few have been in business even longer than Stanfield\u2019s. The Wilson family, also based in Truro, traces the roots of its business empire back to New England Planters, and entrepreneur William Wilson, who made his way to Nova Scotia on the heels of the Acadian Expulsion, some 260 years ago.<\/p>\n
Leslie McNabb is director of the Centre for Family Business and Regional Prosperity, a department of the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie, says that many family businesses fail soon after the founder relinquishes control. In many ways family businesses become extensions of the family that created them, complete with all the complications of living as part of a family dynamic \u2014 sibling rivalries, entitlement issues, members who refuse to pull their fair share of the weight.<\/p>\n
McNabb says family businesses have some real advantages over typical corporations. For one thing they tend to be leaner and are able to implement new policies and new directions much quicker. But bringing family members into the mix can cause real upheavals in a business.<\/p>\n
Succession planning is key, says McNabb, yet only 30 per cent of family businesses have a succession plan in place. \u201cAll businesses are concerned with succession issues, but when family is involved it takes on an added stress. Family issues tend to creep into the discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the hardest thing for any entrepreneur may be relinquishing control of a business they\u2019ve spent a lifetime building.<\/p>\n