Danielle Stewart
Book in a Day

Industry

Publishing (we are Story Sharers)

What generation is your family business?

I am second generation as my Dad, David, came up with the initial idea of Book in a Day 3 years ago and since then, we have both been working hard to develop our brand into a unique offering that is one of a kind.

What is your role in the family business?

I guess I am a ‘jack of all trades’ at the moment but am going under the umbrella of Managing Director. I work closely with everyone in our team from graphic designers, interviewers, transcribers and editors to make sure each Book in a Day is perfect for our clients.

What/ who is a major influence for you in the family business?

I think for me it is the honest conversations that are a real influence. There is no beating around the bush of sugar coating when working with family, which I think is a great thing because everyone is made to be on the same page. Even my colleagues who don’t have the last name ‘Stewart’ are part of the family.

What’s the key benefit of your FBA membership?

Meeting other like-minded people that understand the pros and cons of working with family. I think there is a sense of loyalty and passion with anyone that works for a family business because each employee is not a number; they have a pivotal role to play in the community that they call ‘work’.

David Kelly
Kelly Hazel Quill

How long have you been working with family businesses?

I’ve been working with family businesses my whole career as a lawyer, so since 1998.  However, I have worked most closely with family businesses since starting KHQ Lawyers in early 2006.  Before 2006 I was working for very large national firms, which aren’t always very user friendly for family businesses.  As a lawyer, my philosophy is that high quality commercial lawyers should be easier for businesses to use. When we set up KHQ in 2006 we deliberately set about formulating a business model to make high quality commercial legal services more accessible and easier to use, so this naturally increased my level of involvement with family businesses.  

What’s one of the most common mistakes you see in family businesses?

The most common mistake I see occurring inside family businesses is a failure to ‘shop around’ for the right advisers to suit the business at that particular point in the business’ life.  Family businesses can sometimes tend to get ‘stuck’ with advisers, be it accountants or lawyers or other professionals, who might have been right once upon a time for the business, but who no longer have the skills, capacity or energy to properly service the business.  A growing, dynamic family business may need to change its key advisers as the business goes through different stages of its life.  While loyalty is great, it is still important to get great advice and great value for money.

What is your “uh ha” moment with your clients? When they realise…

This is a great question.  My regular “uh ha” moment with clients is when they realise they are in a legal, tax or other problem which could have been avoided with a little thought and a modest investment up front in good advice.  The perfect – and so common – examples of this are:

• clients signing commercial agreements without legal review and those agreements turn out to be full of gremlins
• business structures being allowed to organically grow without sufficient thought or advice, leading to all sorts of asset protection and taxation problems down the track