Your Role

As a business owner you are the core of your business and the architect of your enterprise.

Planning for the success of your business cannot effectively be done, without you knowing where you want to go. 

Your attitude impacts the perceptions of creditors, suppliers, vendors, franchisers, managers and employees of the business. Clarification of the owner’s goals, responsibilities, priorities and opportunities are critical to business succession. Your family, management team, and employees are looking to you for leadership.

The business ultimately takes on your values, goals, and objectives. Do you know what yours are? And if so, what type of legacy do you want to leave?

Finances

Enhancing business performance and developing financial resources to support business succession.

Most believe that they “Have it All Done” through developing wills, trusts, and buy-sell agreements. However, achieving Succession Success requires addressing multiple interdependent issues beyond basic estate planning. Addressing the financial aspects of business succession encompasses multiple variables such as: 

 1. Have you developed sufficient independent wealth outside of the business so you can exit your business?

2. Does the next generation have good relationships with your lending institutions for future capital and guaranteeing debt?

3. Is your business structured properly to take the most advantage for gifting and tax write offs?

4. Is business performance optimized to ensure your business can handle a predictable dip in profitability during the transfer of the business?

Family

Are emotions tearing your business apart?

Getting everyone together for Thanksgiving dinner or a productive board meeting can be challenging in many businesses.

Bloodline or not, you truly care about the welfare of each of your partners, managers, employees, and their families.  More often than not, it is our emotions that get in the way of productivity, teamwork, and Succession Success.

We understand that interactions between people you care about can be overwhelming and often put on the “backburner”.  As succession specialist, we are dedicated and highly experience in facilitating these difficult but necessary discussions. By promoting communication and clearly defining expectations you have increased the odds for achieving your succession dream.

Management

Strengthening and maintaining the heartbeat of your business.

Succession Success is not simply about you getting your “ducks in a row,” it is also highly dependent upon the strength and depth of your management team.

Consider the following:

Who are your key managers? Are they working together or playing “turf” ball to meet their personal objectives instead of the company’s?

Can business operations continue running without you being the one to hold everything together? Have you identified successors for each of your key leadership positions?

Do you have a process for properly training family interested in your business and integrating them into your management team?

Do you have the right people in the right roles that creates a strong team that compliments each other’s strengths and weaknesses?