Family businesses at the heart of UK enterprise

New research shows that family businesses sit right at the heart of the UK economy. The study, conducted by Tenon Forum, showed that almost 60% of UK business people involve a family member in their business in some capacity.

8% of business owners questioned had family members working for free within the business, with 6% gaining professional advice from family members.

Oft-cited advice that you should never work with the "other half" also seems to be a ignored in many cases, with one third of all small business bosses running their businesses with their partner or spouse. A further 25% run their businesses with parents or siblings.

The Tenon study also revealed some interesting differences between entrepreneurs based in the South and North - just 9% of entrepreneurs based in London and the South East created their enterprises from scratch, whereas 27% of entrepreneurs in the North West, North East and Yorkshire inherited their businesses.

The larger the company, the less likely it is to have family involved; only 18% of those firms with a £20m+ turnover have family involved compared to 69 per cent of sub £1m businesses. Family firms proliferate most in the agriculture, mining and fishery sectors.