Our Top 6 Succession Planning Questions For Business Owners

I recently had the privilege of engaging with more than 50 succession planning professionals at our inaugural Succession Planning Roundtable to discuss how we can best serve our business owner clients. These credentialed CPAs, estate planning attorneys, business attorneys, wealth advisors and risk/ insurance experts have decades of experience in their fields.

But there’s one question none of them could adequately answer: how to move their clients to action on succession planning, even as potentially serious consequences loom ahead for boomer business owners who choose to ignore the inevitable fact that every owner will leave his or her business one day.

Though we didn’t come up with a magical answer, there was a lot of good material shared. Each of our five panelists shared their top questions they ask their clients when talking about succession. If you’re still thinking, “Not me. Not yet,” read on for the questions I find important in spurring my clients into action. Click here for the full list of all of the roundtable presenters’ questions.

1 — What concerns you most about getting started with succession planning?

• What's holding you back or getting in your way? What have you already done?

2 — Who in your business IS — or CAN BE — capable of running it profitably and sustainably if:

• You wanted to take off for two to four weeks for a much-earned vacation getaway?
• You were tired of the demands and wanted to ramp down to three days per week?
• You were no longer able to run your business due to health issues, family needs or worse?
• Could your family continue to run your business profitably?
• Could your family afford to hire someone to replace you?
• How do you know? Are they willing? What is your contingency plan if something happened to you?

3 — Do you really know what your business is worth, beyond a back-of-napkin self-assessment? What will someone pay for it? What would YOU pay for it if you were buying it today?

4 — What have you done to get your business “sale ready” for the outcome you most want, whether to fund your retirement, leave a legacy business to family or employees or find a strategic buyer?

5 — Most owners have a hard time imagining life without their business. How will you navigate that transition?

6 — What two or three things could you do in the next three months to position you to transition on your terms?

Spend some time with these questions. You don’t have to have all of the answers tomorrow, but it will serve you well to consider them today.

Interested in joining our Succession Planning Roundtable? Email Abby or call 336.458.9939. We’ll add you to our invitation list for future events.

Retirement Resistance

Why haven’t you started developing a plan to sell your business?

When you are within 3-5 years of your ideal retirement age, the time to start planning is…well…yesterday.

If you are not ready to visualize what your retirement will look like in your mind’s eye, you won’t ever be ready to start planning your retirement in real life.

Having resistance to the succession planning process is natural, and starting is easier than you think.

Step one:  Figure out what is holding you back.

Experience has shown me that the most common roadblock is the not so simple matter of mental readiness.

Yourbusinessgives you asense of purpose and direction in your life.

It is impossible to imagine walking away from that…

unless you have something meaningful to walk towards.

Retirement is not the end of the road…it is a transition to your next great adventure.

Uncharted territory is not as intimidating when you have a guide to walk with you.

Are you ready to have a confidential conversation about navigating your purposeful steps forward?

abby@leadershiplegacygroup.com

Your Company; Your Baby

We have heard it many times before:

Business owners referring to their company as “their baby”.

It makes sense.

When you start your own company, it is a unique expression of you. An expression that you bring into this world, and foster as it grows…an expression that takes a vast amount of emotional, physical, and financial resources.

Great parents ultimately raise their kids to stand on their own two feet one day…

Great leaders should raise their businesses to do the same.

As rewarding as parenting can be, two things can commonly be observed in parents:

• That undeniable glimmer in their eye when a child-free vacation is being planned
• That unmistakable pep in their step when their adult child is moving out of the house

Business owner’s, like parents, need vacations during the raising process, and a light at the end of the tunnel to look forward to:

The day when their “unique expressions” can function in the world without them and deliver a return on their investment!

Your business may be “your baby”…but it can’t remain a baby forever.

Take a look at your business parenting technique. Are you an overprotective business parent?

• Do you have a strong enough team in place to enable you to take vacations, or are you trapped in the office?
• Will your company need to cling to your leg when time to retire?