Family businesses are the most common type of business worldwide. As a field of research, family businesses emerged during the 1980s around the issues concerning formalization and succession. From a systemic approach, family businesses can be defined as a system comprising three sub- systems - the family, the administration and the property. This study investigates the operation of family businesses considering that the sub-systems comprising such businesses exert reciprocal influence and impact upon the borders that define and distinguish each sub-system. A bibliographic review was conduced of studies applying the systemic approach to families and to family businesses. This review was then combined to an exploratory research of three groups of people directly involved with family businesses: professionals that provide services to family businesses, employees that do not belong to the families, and heirs that may or may not work for the businesses owned by their families. The discourse of these individuals was analyzed, and their different perceptions of family businesses were combined to provide a more comprehensive, less fragmented view of this type of business and its related issues. This study contributes to the understanding of family businesses and facilitating the resolution of the main issues that affect both the businesses and the families.