September 2010 — Approximately 92 percent of all jewelry stores are independently owned. Unlike many retail industries, family owned businesses are a very common form of ownership in the jewelry industry.

Successful family businesses tend to resemble fireflies. They flicker brightly for a brief moment and then die away.

A recent Grant Thornton research study found that 70 percent of family businesses never make it to the second generation. Ninety (90) percent never make it to the third generation. A precious few family businesses, though, do manage to beat the odds. They are passed down, revived, and reinvented from generation to generation, while all the others have long since gone bust, been bought, or just slowly faded away, done in by family feuds, hard times, or changing tastes.

So why do some family owned businesses thrive while others fail? Successful family businesses all have one thing in common: a succession plan.

A plan of succession should be created years in advance of a transition, and this plan should include the following items...