Keeping a business in the family isn't always easy

Q A friend, who’s in his 70s, wishes to pass his joinery business to his son, who’s in his 40s. The son is a good joiner, but doesn't want the responsibility of running the firm – he just wants to be a worker. How can the business be kept in the family?

If a partner was brought in, the worry is that this could lead to problems, dissolution and an end to family control – any ideas?

A Your friend has four objectives – and he can probably achieve them all.

He wants to retire; his son to stay as a joiner; to find someone else to run the company; and to keep all the shares in the family. The key is to pick the right person to be the managing director and the answer may well be staring your friend in the face.

Is your friend still putting in a full shift or,  having reached 70, is he spending more time on holiday and taking the odd day off? There will almost certainly be some key people who make it all work when he isn't around. They are the long-term colleagues who know the business inside out and do critical jobs by instinct.

When your friend goes off for his three weeks in the Algarve or, if he was out of action due to a sudden illness, these are the people who keep the company on track. One of them would almost certainly be capable of being your friend's successor, as long as they have the right relationship with his son.

Tell your friend not to be tempted to bring in an outsider and that there’s no need to offer a partnership, or even an equity stake. He should appoint from within and provide a very generous bonus that’s based on profits. The family needs to pick a manager who’s motivated to make the day-to-day business work well, but has no interest in plotting to build a big block of shares.

Hopefully an existing employee will step up to the top job so that the son can stick to his craft without having to worry about management, and the family can stay in control to give any grandchildren the chance to continue the family tradition. If your friend doesn't feel that anyone can be promoted to take on the job, perhaps he should postpone his retirement plans until the right person appears.

Q I work in an industry that’s highly regulated and I have to spend much of my time doing things that I'm told to do by compliance officers – people who have never done my job. These people are the bane of my life and sometimes make me feel like chucking it all in. Do I just have to grin and bear it?

A Like you, I don't like rules. I lose the plot if faced with official paperwork, especially when the regulation fails to follow common sense. But box-ticking and compliance are probably the fastest growing parts of our economy and there’s little sign that the development of regulation and governance will slow down.

However, there’s no need for you to spend your own precious time filling in forms. Beat the box-tickers at their own game by setting up your own form-filling department, which will leave everyone else free to get on with their job.

The regulators think that, by setting up a measurable process, they will ensure that you have a safe, secure and successful enterprise, but we know life isn't like that. The regulatory process produces a paper trail for inspectors to audit, but, even you, probably concede that they play an important role in health and safety. However, you can't make an amazing enterprise simply by sticking to the rules. The difference between company success and failure is achieved by innovative entrepreneurs and employees who are free to use their initiative.

I suggest that you appoint a company “tick box officer” who completes all the forms and keeps your compliance record as clean as a whistle. This might be an extra expense, but will be worth every penny if it releases you to do your job without having to fill in any forms.

Sir John Timpson is chairman of the high-street services provider, Timpson.

Send him an email at askjohn@telegraph.co.uk