Any small neighborhood grocery store in Egypt is often opened by a self-made man who works his whole life to build it into a successful family business.
When his children can join him in the management of the business, it can become the bread and butter of a large family and several employees.
A family business in Egypt may be as large as a LE1 million operation.
Here below are seven rules that govern family businesses in Egypt:
1. Diversify the products:
To make sure that the business is not affected by economic and political blows, owners of a family business trade in basic commodities that are needed at all times by all types of consumers.
2. Inheritance:
Family businesses move from one generation to another. What can once start as a small operation managed by founder and his elder son, can turn after the death of the founder into a large operation involving several family members with children and grandchildren.
Here, differences may emerge and the business may be divided among them, leaving each with a small portion that he or she will have to expand again like the original founder did.
3. Development versus expansion:
Normally, the family increases the capital to open branches in different cities and turn the business into a chain selling the same product or service without change.
4. For men only:
Traditionally, only the male children and cousins take over the responsibility of running a family business, with a few exceptions, such as a widow forced to take over after the death of her husband.
5. Intermarriage:
Intermarriage is a safe means to keep the business within the family, but sometimes marriages take place between different families that own a business so as to unite and expand the scope of business into one big operation.
6. Compliments:
Owners of a family business make sure they have good relations with the neighborhood, such as giving them presents on special occasions, in order to consolidate their customers.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
