Two Minnesota business management firms are joining forces to better provide services addressing the challenges faced by family business owners.
 
Minneapolis-based Hubler for Business Families and Eden Prairie-based Platinum Group announced merger plans on Thursday. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
 
In a joint statement, the organizations said the merger would bring together Hubler’s family relationship management skills with Platinum Group’s business management skills to create a more well-rounded company.
 
“It takes a multi-disciplinary team of skills — emotional, business, legal and financial — to guide today’s family businesses and transition ownership to the next generation,” said Tom Hubler, owner of Hubler for Business Families. “This new A-Team has worked with hundreds of family businesses to enable them to be driven by their values and vision rather than the often conflicting overlap of family relationships and business systems.”
 
The companies said it would provide a number of services through its merger, including: succession planning, conflict resolution, management and board development, leadership transitions, family communication plans, strategic business planning, and identification of formal education resources to family businesses and their trusted advisors.
 
Hubler, who started his business in 1981, eventually founded the annual Minnesota Family Business Awards in 2008. Three years later, Twin Cities Business took over publication of the awards.
 
In the September column for TCB, Hubler wrote about how family dynamics can complicate day-to-day business, particularly in the case of determining salaries for each family member.