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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Family Business Center Needs Help From Family Businesses

The California State University, Northridge, Family Business Center is at a crossroads. But with all our help I think it can choose the right path to follow. Some Business Journal readers who run family businesses may be unaware that there is even an organized family business resource in the Valley and that’s part of the problem the center is now facing it’s little known. It’s also little used, under-funded, under-appreciated but has great potential. Run as part of the college’s business school, the center was started as a way to help family firms run better businesses. Housed and staffed by CSUN, the center is supposed to be governed by owners of family businesses who can then use its resources and hopefully meet other family business owners and workers who may face similar challenges as they do in their firms. They can then learn from each other. The problem is that the center has few resources a part-time director who also is a CSUN professor with a busy schedule, no staff, no real office and a board which seldom meets. It has about $15,000 in an account, seven paying members, three sponsors but only really four active members. Prompted by frustrations from the director, CSUN professor David Russell, these active board members got together last Thursday on campus to essentially decide the future of the center. Because of a tight budget at the school, Russell only is given a limited amount of time to run the center. He’s frustrated and feels he isn’t doing enough. He was asking for some guidance from board members as to where they want to go with it. It’s clear that there’s few additional financial resources that will come out of CSUN to support the center. The meeting, which I attended, was fruitful. It was decided that the center needs more funding from other family businesses and other private sources and it also needs to put together a large laundry list of what the center can offer. Right now it offers mainly monthly seminars concerning topics of interest to family businesses. These sessions are high-quality but not enough. Russell and board members vowed to target some companies and present to them the potential of the center so that they may be persuaded to join. So, now it’s time for Valley-area family businesses and others to step up and join the center, become active in its governance and programs and help grow this resource. The potential is clearly there. Why join? Because a thriving family business center is badly needed in the area. Family businesses make up a huge and vital sector of our local economy and most family business owners will tell you that they could learn how to run their businesses better. This can only be good for the overall economy. The center’s recent monthly seminars discussing such things as proper methods of family business succession and dealing with employees have been useful to many but with more money they can be better and more frequent with a top-notch cast of presenters. The center’s members, family business owners themselves, are perhaps the center’s greatest resource. Networking opportunities abound. Family business owners themselves can teach each other through panels and other sessions all promoted in an academic atmosphere of research and learning. CSUN’s students and courses are also great resources to tap for all sorts of projects that would be beneficial to family businesses. In partnership with local chambers of commerce, the center can offer higher-powered programs, networking opportunities and access to informational and financial resources. It appears that those running the current center believe that there should be some level of involvement by so-called service providers such as accountants and lawyers in the center and in its governance. With that, family businesses could have access to free or low-cost consulting services. Other opportunities abound and are only limited by the imagination of the family business center’s membership which is open to everybody willing to pay dues. The Business Journal publicizes all family business center events and our regular family business column can provide an interactive forum for activities and initiatives that the center undertakes. Many of our readers are family business owners and we’ve found that many of these businesspeople don’t have the time to seek out resources to help them. They need organized, easy-to-access resources which I believe the center can provide. For more information on joining the CSUN Family Business Center, contact Director David Russell at (818) 677-2438 or [email protected]

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