Meaning & use
family-run business
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A business owned and operated by members of the same family, often passed down through generations.
Grammar: Countable; use 'a family-run business' or 'family-run businesses'.
Patterns
- a family-run business
- run a family-run business
- work for a family-run business
My parents own a small family-run business in the town center.
Many family-run businesses struggle to compete with large chains.
She left her corporate job to join the family-run business.
Word forms
| plural | family-run businesses |
|---|
Common combinations
- small family-run business
- The bakery is a small family-run business that has been open for fifty years.
- run a family-run business
- It can be difficult to run a family-run business without mixing work and home life.
- family-run hotel
- We stayed at a charming family-run hotel near the beach.
- family-run farm
- The family-run farm produces organic vegetables.
Synonyms and how they differ
- family business
- A more general term that can refer to any business involving a family, not necessarily one that is actively managed by family members.
- mom-and-pop store
- Informal and often used for very small, local shops; it emphasizes small scale rather than family ownership.
Opposites
Word family
- family-run adjective
- Describes a business or organization that is managed by a family.
Commonly confused: family-run business or family business?
family-run business vs family business
Often used interchangeably, but 'family business' can simply mean a business that a family owns, while 'family-run business' stresses that the family actively manages it.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'family-run business' correctly?
Choose one answer.
Option 0 is correct because the relative clause 'that her grandparents started' needs no extra pronoun or preposition. The other options add unnecessary words that make the sentence ungrammatical.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “family-run business”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.