Running a business with a sibling on the opposite side of the world means someone is always asleep while the other is working.
This is a predicament that Ian Hammersley, 46, knows well. He lives in Cheshire while his older brother and business partner Mark, 48, is in Auckland, New Zealand – more than 11,000 miles away.
Together they run a business coaching e-commerce brands to boost profitability, simply named Hammersley Brothers, working with companies like Thorntons and Aga.
While running a long-distance business has its difficulties, the upside is a brand that can grow across borders, underpinned with the kind of brutal honesty only a sibling can deliver.
As running a business in the UK becomes increasingly difficult, with elevated tax burdens and rising labour costs, families may be well placed to capitalise on this special relationship – even if it means dealing with different time zones.
According to PwC’s Global Family Business Survey, a quarter of family businesses achieved double-digit sales growth last year.
“Siblings understand each other’s strengths, weaknesses and ways of communicating without having to consciously think about it, which can allow them to make decisions as a united front when under pressure,” says Dr Tej Samani, an honorary research fellow in business and management at the University of Sussex.
‘There’s no ego, no airs and graces’
The Hammersley brothers’ upbringing also helped them build their business, which Ian founded in 2005 and Mark joined soon after, even though they broke away from the family legacy.
“We’re originally bakers,” says Ian – fourth generation ones at that. “We grew up talking business at the kitchen table. It just felt normal.”
The business was going strong, but the arrangement changed dramatically for the brothers when Mark got married, had a child and decided to move to Auckland, where his wife is from, in 2009.
“We were turning over about a million a year,” says Ian. “But we decided to give it a go. Waving him off felt like a bereavement.”