San Francisco Legacy Business Legislation - Essay Example

Family Businesses in San Francisco A family business refers to ventures whereby the family members have an influence on key policies and strategies. They own significant portions of the stock and decide on whether to maintain their ownership. In addition, they have a position on the board of the enterprise. Notable examples of family businesses with San Francisco consist of Empress of China Restaurant; Lombardi sports; Flex among many more. Family businesses are enterprises of their nature possessing unique aspects.

There are numerous problems affecting family business in San Francisco. However, the major problem is the eviction by property owners. Eviction has been because of the boom of the real estate venture that is more profitable. Consequently, this has been to the disadvantage of family businesses, which have been in existence for more than three decades. Similarly, an issue closely brought about by this is uncertainty of existence. Whereby, the increased desire to invest in real estate makes business owners unable to predict their future existence. (Tyler) Second, the lack of an exit strategy has resulted to the closure of many businesses.

These plans give additional information on how to end the business in the event of any uncertainty. When plans of this nature are not available, the likelihood of the existence of a business in the near future is minimal (Iwan). For illustration, Flax is an example of a family business that is planning to remain functional until 2016. Moreover, they want the location of their business to stay within San Francisco (Tyler). Third, the hiring of family members with no skills necessary for various sectors of the business can have far-reaching complications.

Lack of skills can lead to poor decisions that affect the performance of the company. Similarly, lack of expertise can result to inability to predict trends with the market sector. Consequently, this can significantly affect the existence of a business (Iwan). Fourth, being too conservative by previous owners of the business is risky when it comes to the present existence of the company. This could either be in terms of ideas and goals. Consequently, this makes the business rigid and unable to compete fully within the current market structure (Iwan).

Finally, a succession plan also acts as a problem affecting family members. Most of the companies do not have a succession plan. As a result, this usually leads to leadership wrangles that translate to division within the business (Iwan). David Campos works with San Francisco Heritage in finalizing the legislation that intends to protect the existence of family businesses that have been in existence for more than three decades. It will be through developing a record of legacy businesses. The registry will categorize them as restaurants, manufacturers, or retailers who have existed for more than thirty-years, and have positively contributed to the present day San Francisco.

The legislation will enable property owners who sell to legacy companies to access their reimbursement on the city’s transfer tax of real estate. For illustration, it will be at a rate of 1.5 and 2.5 percent for bellow ten million dollars and above respectively (Dineen). Works Cited Dineen, J K. "S.F. development boom swallows up historic family businesses." Wednesday October 2014. Sfgate. Thursday October 2014. . Iwan, Lee. "20 Challenges Faced by a Family Owned Business." August 2006. Leeiwan. Thursday October 2014. . Tyler, Carolyn.

"New Legislation isTrying to Protect Old Buisinesses from SF Real Estate Boom." Monday October 2014. ABC 7 News. Thursday October 2014. .