According to Cox Family Enterprise Center, Family businesses are a long-established tradition: 80% of the world’s businesses are family owned; nearly 35% of them are Fortune 500 (such as Ford Motors, Wal-Mart and Ikea). Also, family-owned businesses account for 60% of total US employment, and 78% of all new jobs.

French Web Fashion magazine for “round sizes”   Vives les Rondes, IT companies such as Cisco Systems, VMware , social networking AOL, on-line ticketing Eventbrite, Women’s network Sugar and  on-line fashion company Modcloth  are few of many examples of successful business run by married couples, able to balance the demands of matrimony with the pressure demands of running a technology startup. Women 2.0, Silicon Valley no-profit organization to increase female founders of technology startups, point out that it isn’t easy, as any of them will attest, but their life partnerships do offer some advantages. (Source USA Today).

Gaia Marchisio, Assistant Professor at Kennesaw State University, Atlanta and Faculty Member explains that the majority of companies in the world are owned, operated, or managed by mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters. “Clearly, family ties can make business strong. But they can also make business more complicated. More than 30 percent of all family-owned businesses survive into the second generation. But only about 13 percent are passed onto the third generation.” (Source: Inc.com).

Every small business faces challenges and problems. The family business is no different. Even so, many professional that lost their jobs in Spain are often considering starting a business up to live from their passion, facing a real challenge that is getting harder to find in “normal” jobs in multinational big companies whose plans for their employees are often uncertain. 85% of enterprises and startups are family owned in Spain and contribute to 70% of national GDP.(Source: Family Firm Institute, INC. ).

If you are looking to start a new business up in Spain, be prepared to persist with your project.  In the Entrepreneurship Center of BarcelonaNETactiva you will be able to develop your business concept, get the advice of business analysts and experts, receive training  in business management and new technologies that you may need. Also, you will be able to prepare your business plan by using our Online Business Plan application, evaluating the viability of your project  and to meet other entrepreneurs, enterprises, experts, investors at Biznetbarcelona.