Professionalizing Family Businesses in the South-East Region of Nigeria

This article is on Professionalizing Family Businesses in The South-East Region of Nigeria. The survey research covered the eight commercial cities of the region. The study revealed that virtually all the family businesses surveyed are not professionalized. Majority of family enterprises have no clearly stated vision and mission statements, they rarely attended seminars and training programmes; have few graduates and professionals in their employment, have poor wages and salaries structure; not incorporated; few are members of professional and trade associations; and largely not aware of government incentive policies on entrepreneurship development. It is against this backdrop that the paper made far reaching recommendations: such as incorporating family businesses, employing graduates and professionals, having functional boards of directors, employing the services of consultants, striving to be the best at something, etc, and highlighted the advantages of professionalizing family businesses to the benefit of the enterprises themselves and the Nigerian economy. Key words: Professionalizing; Family businesses; Government policies; Entrepreneurship development; Strategies; South-East Nigeria