boutique family business practice

For couples who are partners in life and in business, and who refuse to sacrifice one for the other.

You've built something remarkable together - a business that works. But when the lines between home and work blur, when decisions become arguments and communication breaks down, the weight of it falls on both of you simultaneously: as partners and as leaders. The intersection where home and work meet is where I work.

How do I make a start?

Lily Llewellyn

Founder, Family Business Specialist

"Spreadsheets in the bedsheets" - is how Allison Ellsworth describes the reality of couples in business together. And it points to something most consultants and advisors are not equipped to address.

A business owned and run by a couple is not simply a business owned by relatives. It is a complex relational system where family psychology, loyalty, identity and conflict merge with money, leadership and ownership. The dynamics that make you extraordinary together can also be the ones that put everything at risk.

As a psychotherapist, business coach and mediator, with over ten years of experience running my own business, I work at the intersection of all of it. I don't just work on strategy or just the relationship. Our work covers all of it together at once.

Because that's exactly how you're living it.

Learn more about Lily Llewellyn

Who I Work With

  • You, as an individual

    The most important work often begins with one person. Whether you're seeking clarity about your role, your relationships or your future, individual work gives you the space to understand yourself more deeply - how you communicate, how you lead, what you want and what you're building towards.

  • You, as a couple and family

    At the heart of every couple in business is a relationship. Our work together focuses on the dynamics between you - how you communicate, how you make decisions, how you navigate conflict and how you protect both the business and each other as you grow. We can bring in others who are impacted, such as your parents or adult children.

  • You, as a business

    When the wider business needs attention - leadership transitions, ownership structures, roles, responsibilities, vision and values - we bring the right people into the room and do the work that sets the foundation for everything that follows. This is bespoke and we will have a conversation about what work on your business entails.

The Ways I Help

Our work is carefully designed to fit you. We work in collaboration and I draw on proven thinking and frameworks to creatively find what uniquely fits you, your relationships and your business.

  • Conflict resolution

    Structured mediation that helps move through tension, repair communication and find practical ways forward when relationships and business conflicts mean decisions feel stuck.

    View mediation services 

  • The Family Business Review

    Understanding who you each are and how you work together is where everything begins. DISC profiling and FEAT® give couples in business a precise, evidence-based picture of your personalities, communication and work styles.

    View learning tools 

  • In-depth partnership

    An ongoing advisory relationship gives confidential space, strategic thinking, structures and experienced guidance as you navigate complex decisions, relationships and long-term plans. Many clients choose ongoing advisory for continuity, depth, and lasting change.

    View in-depth partnerships 

  • Helping professionals

    Reflective supervision for professionals gives a unique, confidential space to explore complex cases, ethical questions and the emotional demands of relational work.

    View supervision 
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Commonly asked questions

Why family businesses and couples?

Family businesses often struggle not because of the business operation. In fact family-owned businesses tend to be more sustainable and more profitable than businesses that are not family owned. Instead they struggle because relationships and communication break down around them. These relationship tensions can happen for a huge number of reasons, many of which are not present in non-family businesses or with couples and families that do not work together.

Couples and families who run businesses are underserved and few professionals are trained or feel able to work with the whole family business system and the dynamics at play.

Motivated by my personal experience as a teenager in a family business, I've added my professional training as a psychotherapist, business coach and mediator with my own business experience to be uniquely specialised and qualified to help couples and families in business.

What counts as a family business?

To The Extended Family Company®, family businesses are characterised by the dual relationships that people have. While the majority of my clients come to me as a couple, I have experience working with clients who are best friends or distinct relatives. I am more than willing to consider them a family business and work with this dynamic.

We're not a romantic couple, can you help?

The definition of family is not straight forward. There are many blended families and people who are chosen family.

If you consider yourself family or hugely value your personal relationship, I would be glad to start a conversation with you about working together.

Do you work online and/or face to face?

The majority of my work, including days of mediation, is online. My clients are spread across the English speaking world, mainly Europe and North America.

However, I am open to travel to clients based in the United Kingdom for mediation.

When possible, I make the effort to visit my long-term clients so we can meet in person.

Please share in your enquiry whether you would like to meet in person before engaging in work.

I understand that meeting in person is special and captures something that cannot be pinned down online.

Who do you involve in the work?

While my work focuses particularly on couples, if we find that it is important and all agree we can include all people who are impacted by the business - this may be your extended family, and non-family members of staff.

Having said this, some of my clients agree that a more closed circle is needed for what they are looking to achieve. We will agree on the scope of work.

All work is completely confidential and I am unbiased and impartial in my position.

What areas and challenges do you help with?

Please see the "About you" page to read more.

My work sits at the intersection of the family, business and individual dynamics. This means that I have worked with clients to help with a misalignment or tension between these dynamics. I have helped with agreeing new systems and ways of working and being. I also have experience to help my clients find new ways of managing succession, governance, and conflict tensions too.

How long do you normally work with clients?

It depends.

Mediation will last for half a day or one full day.

Normally partnerships will last anything from six months to a year. However, I have clients who are proactive, value maintenance and understand that a business and family are always changing. With these clients, we agree to have ongoing partnership at lighter touch-points.

To date, the longest client group I've worked with is three years.

Where can I learn about your fees?

Please submit an enquiry to know more about my fee structure.

For ongoing partnerships we will have a conversation about what you are looking to achieve, who is likely to be involved and what is the scope.

Do you offer a free discovery / chemistry call?

Yes.

Before any working contracts are signed and work is agreed upon, I always meet and talk at length with people I could potentially work with. We will have spoken at length before we agree to work with each other. This does not come at any cost to you.

Please see the "How to make a start" page to learn more about my process of starting with new clients.

Do you do co-mediation?

Yes.

I do co-mediation.

All are welcome to submit an enquiry to know more about this.

If you're curious about whether this work might be right for you and your business, the best place to start is a confidential enquiry. There is no obligation and no pressure. It is a careful, considered conversation to explore whether we might be well suited to work together.

Submit an enquiry