Marilou’s word
I don’t have the slightest idea what my business will become when I feel the need to stop, but I’d be lying if I said I never dreamed that my daughters or one of them would wish to continue my mission. But when I escape into these thoughts, I quickly come back to reality and I can imagine very well all the challenges that would create. Taking on a company’s mission while taking into account its uniqueness, creativity and capabilities certainly requires a lot of preparation. I often wonder how we get there.
Entrepreneurial Quebec is experiencing an influx of generational transfers of management and ownership of family-owned SMEs.
However, for the “buyers” of a family SME, often young adults at the end of their studies and at the start of their career, it is never easy to successfully carry out such a transfer of ownership, in addition to management responsibilities. that come with it.
“Even though I had worked with my father in his company during my years of study in mechanical engineering, I still experienced a certain clash with the addition of management tasks and the perception of long-term employees when I I became the big boss after buying out my father’s shares,” relates Yanik Péloquin, president of Gicleurs Acme, in Boucherville.
He is also the grandson of the founder of this company of around sixty employees which installs or renovates fire sprinkler systems on several large building sites in the metropolitan Montreal region.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Yanik Péloquin with one of his employees
I wasn’t sure I’d like it at first. But I adapted to it even if it was a little more difficult than I expected.
Yanik Péloquin, president of Gicleurs Acme
“Things are going well now, with our production capacity and a busy order book, as well as a growing need to upgrade our management systems. Nevertheless, I would have liked to have been better prepared to manage the hazards of such a transfer of the SME founded by my grandfather and managed for a long time by my father. This is also why I continued to do additional training in management and why my sister, who was already a passive co-shareholder in the company, took leave from her regular job to become more involved in management. an accountant. »
Develop your “soft skills”
In the opinion of Jessica Grenier, president and partner at Espace Oria, a family takeover analysis-consulting firm, young business people involved in a family SME transfer project must remain attentive to the evolution of interpersonal relationships with non-family colleagues. And this, throughout the stages of their taking charge of the management of the company founded and managed by their parents.
Beyond basic management know-how, the development of good interpersonal “soft skills” in the company and in its business environment is an important asset for success for young buyers of a family business. .
Jessica Grenier, president and partner at Espace Oria
At the management of Construction JP Roy, a company of 125 employees in excavation work and machinery rental established in Beauharnois, on the South Shore, the transition to the third generation began at the beginning of 2021.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
From left to right: Marie-Josée Roy, Francis Roy, Marie-Ève Roy, Nicolas Roy and Daniel Roy
With their sister Marie-Ève Roy, a recent graduate in accounting, the brothers Francis – trained in civil engineering – and Nicolas – who learned his management profession in practice – have just completed the transfer of shares and management responsibilities of their father, Daniel Roy. He recently retired from co-president – with his sister Marie-Josée – of the company established in 1960 by their father, Jean-Paul Roy.
The young third-generation Roys already had a few years of experience working part-time and then full-time in the family SME.
“It was a little longer and complicated at times than what we had anticipated with our few years of experience with the management and direction of the company,” relates Francis Roy, during a discussion with The Press. He is in the company of his brother and sister, as well as their father Daniel and their aunt Marie-Josée, who remains co-president and co-shareholder of Construction JP Roy.
But in the end, Francis Roy emphasizes, it went well. “Our transfer went well because we had prepared well for it within the family and with our main colleagues. But also, we surrounded ourselves with professional advisors (accountants, tax specialists, lawyers, etc.) who knew where to go with all that. »
Good discussions well in advance
“In Quebec, surveys in the SME sector indicate that nearly two-thirds (61%) of their owner-managers have transfer intentions within 10 years. However, among family SMEs, a little more than half (54%) do not yet have a succession plan,” points out Alexandre Ollive, general director of the Quebec Business Transfer Center (CTEQ), an organization- provincial-wide council and financially supported by the Ministry of Economy, Innovation and Energy.
However, among the mistakes that must be avoided for the successful completion of a transfer of a family business is neglecting the holding of good preparatory discussions in the family council or in the management committee of the family SME.
Alexandre Ollive, general director of CTEQ
“Also, these family entrepreneurs should not try to do this alone,” continues Mr. Ollive. It is important from the start of a family SME transfer project that the transferring entrepreneurs and their successors are well surrounded by expert advisors and relatively independent from family relatives. »
“Unlike a business transfer without family ties, the transfer of a family-run business from one generation to the next is much more likely to generate emotional and interpersonal issues that go well beyond the only accounting, tax and legal issues. Hence the importance of preparing for it with good discussions in the family council and in the company’s management committee,” notes Catherine Beaucage, director of business transfer within the Familles analysis-consulting group. in business from HEC Montréal.