Nursery World - Nursery Management: Provision

Running a business with your relatives brings benefits and challenges as Annette Rawstrone discovers

Family-run businesses are thought to be the oldest form of business organisation and are arguably well suited to the childcare industry, with the structure bringing a strong, long-term commitment and a natural link between families and childcare.

There are numerous combinations of family-run businesses including husbands and wives, parents and children, siblings, extended families and multiple generations, all of which can be found in the childcare sector.

While family-controlled enterprises play a powerful role in the world economy - with recognisable family businesses including Samsung, Toyota and Gucci - they make up a large part of the UK childcare sector too.

Andrew Steen, managing director of business brokers Redwoods Dowling Kerr, estimates that a high percentage of nurseries are owned and run by families, with the majority of single-site nurseries - which make up 75-80 per cent of the childcare market - being family run. The actual market percentage may be higher than this because some of the nursery chains are also owned and run by families.

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