Your Business Continuity

In an ideal world, your business will continue to flourish long after you have exited. In reality, not everything works out accordingly. Having a solid plan for your business’s continuity after you are gone is very important. Multiple circumstances can arise that, without a sufficient plan, can leave your employees flailing. Exit planning from both the owner and those next in line are of the utmost importance because the lack of experience and understanding of how to handle the business should the owner suddenly die or become disabled can be detrimental to the owner’s family, and can possibly bankrupt the business. A buy-sell agreement is essential to the continuity of a business, but it is only one part of exit planning.

Common mistakes often include, but are not limited to: failing to deal with a financial continuity plan when a co-owner dies, failing to deal with the management or leadership of the business when the “leader” of the business dies, and failing to deal with financial, leadership, or business continuity when the sole owner of the business dies. Morbid as it may sound, we never know when an emergency will be thrown our way. Ideally, a business owner, especially a sole business owner, will have a pre-written continuity plan long before anything should happen. But life is uncertain, and being prepared for the unknown in the business world could make or break what is left of all of your hard work.

It is an excellent idea to be well prepared if such an occasion should arrive. Planning is meant to be something done before an exit, either an intentional or unintentional exit. Start planning now to avoid having you or your family watch your business suffer.

“What’s Next?” – Creating a Fulfilling Life After Retirement

As you get ready to ramp down from your full time business role, many start to ask the question “What’s next?” While everyone has ideas about how they would like to spend their next phase of life, the reality is that few actually know how their time will truly be spent. Generally speaking, most people want their lives to be purposeful and meaningful, and retirement is no different. Establishing a plan about the goals and aspirations you wish to reach during your golden years is a great place to start to help avoid the emotional loss most owners feel as they ramp down or exit their business. Sitting down and truly thinking of what you would like to do and what kind of an impact you want to make, is important to do well before you actually exit. Of course, our life priorities change with each life experience, and it may be hard to know exactly what we will want in the future, but creating a basic framework is important so you live the life you have dreamed of living.

According to multiple studies, most retirees are concerned first and foremost about having enough money to get them through their retirement in a joyous and comfortable nature. A study done by the Bureau of Labor, which was published by the Wall Street Journal in 2014, asked pre-retirement Boomers what their top concerns after retirement would be. Of course “having enough money” was at the top of everyone’s list, but after that came:

1. Health
2. My partner’s health
3. Will I need to work?
4. Where will I live?
5. Will I be bored?

The concerns are general, yes, but important to think about nonetheless. The second part of their survey asked what the vision of their post retired lives would look like. The top five came out to be – Joyous, Purposeful, Inspiring, Educational, and Strong. So, looking at the common concerns and aspirations, the question still begs to ask “What is next for you?”

Although most professionals look forward to retirement, the loss that comes with exiting a business can be traumatic. Careers give us a sense of self-worth and belonging in a community. Once you’ve left that ‘community’ of work, it is extremely important to continue to actively engage in some meaningful way. Without doing so, both mental and physical health may suffer. It’s easy to get stuck sleeping late and watching lots of TV. According to the Bureau of Labor survey, the most time consuming activities of the average retiree are sleeping, followed by watching TV/movies. Activities like eating, socializing, reading, cleaning, and exercising were significantly less time consuming on a daily basis. We cannot stress enough how important it is to stay active in your community, revisit or start new activities that are meaningful, and exercise.

Living a healthy, happy, and fulfilling life can be tricky at any age. If your top worry is your health, join a gym, start walking, take tennis lessons, explore different forms of exercising. If your top worry is boredom, identify your strengths and passions and network with people to find meaningful ways to contribute. If you are worried about losing your community connections, plan to travel, join a club, get together with colleagues over lunch or drinks. The possibilities for involvement and entertainment are endless! It really is just up to you to decide which would contribute to helping you feel happy, healthy, and fulfilled.

Are You Weary or Wired?

Over the past 3 years, I’ve had hundreds of conversations with business owners and their trusted advisors about their exit strategy. As baby boomers turn 69 this year, some of them express the excitement and exuberance of a 29 year old as they describe the business opportunities in front of them. And it’s true! There are many wonderful opportunities. Technology and the availability of information and education is allowing people all over the world to come together in new and innovative ways to do things that were impossible to imagine just 20 years ago, and the costs have plummeted, leveling the playing field for many. On the other hand, I find many owners who are weary of the demands of running their business. Fighting fires and dealing with customer issues, employee disagreements and unprofessional behavior. The cost of doing business is going up while the payouts seem to be going down. Consolidation is happening in every industry and small agencies are getting gobbled up by bigger ones.

Agency leaders are approaching their golden years and fewer young professionals are entering the field. Take a look around at your next business gathering or your next meeting of financial service professionals. In Greensboro, NC, we are fortunate to have one of the strongest chapters of the Society of Financial Service Professionals (SFSP) in the country with over 250 members and attendance of over 150 nearly every monthly meeting, and guess what? There is a lot of gray in the room! The industry is aging, as is most every industry in the country as the boomer wave passes through.

Are you among the wired? Or among the weary?

To opt out of business when you are filled with excitement and exuberance ensures a disappointing future as you will always wonder ‘what could have been?’, and the pain of regret is often more challenging than the pain of trying and failing. If this is you and you are giddy about what you can create and how you can grow the business, it’s time to create your roadmap for success:

Get strategic!

Excitement alone won’t grow your business. You need to partner that with a solid growth strategy. How will you reach new people, open new markets? Innovate your products or your delivery system? Create a clear competitive advantage and leverage it?

For an industry that’s been around a while, I like thinking through Jim Collin’s Hedgehog Concept in his best-selling book, ‘Good to Great’. He talks about figuring out what your company is deeply passionate about, what you can be best in the world at, and what drives your economic engine? These are great questions that form the foundation for an innovative strategy.

Surround yourself with Strong Leaders

You want to bring in and develop people who are (or can become) smarter than you, and who bring different areas of expertise. If you excel at sales, bring in someone who excels at operations. As long as you’re going to be around for a while, complement your skills and you’ll strengthen your team.

Execute

Great ideas are just that. Ideas. They mean nothing without execution. So figure out how to systematize, operationalize, standardize. Get effective AND efficient and you’ll discover you’ve got another value driver.

Does this roadmap cover everything the wired exuberant owner needs to focus on? No, but it will provide a strong foundation to build upon.

What if you’re weary?

To stick around the business, after you’ve lost your mojo, well, that doesn’t serve anyone. Your clients can sense you lost your mojo. Your employees know. And you know. If it just doesn’t hold the allure it once did, it’s time to take stock and build a ‘what’s next’ roadmap.

Acknowledge it’s Time for a Change      

You know you are ready to figure out an exit. Accept that it’s ok to want to go. Nobody ever expected you to work forever. Of course your customers and employees will worry about what will happen to them when you are no longer there every day, but that doesn’t mean you don’t make a plan to go. There are always options…if you plan. There are often fewer options if you don’t.

Confidentially explore 

Are there potential suitors you’d like to acquire you? Don’t assume the answer is no just because nobody has come knocking yet. Test the waters a little bit in safe and confidential ways. Awareness is amazing. We miss the hint or dismiss it as a joke. We make broad assumptions that nobody would be interested when in fact, they don’t know how to approach you. Take a look at your team. Do you have employees or family who could afford to buy you out? What about with financing and an earnout? Could they develop or hire the skills and experience needed?

Shift your Employee/Client Mindset

It’s easy to project our thinking on to other people. We anticipate our employees will run out the door if they know we are considering an exit. We expect our clients to take flight and find another agent if they even get a whiff that we may be passing the torch. We also assume that the only option is to keep our process so confidential that we are paralyzed. Might your employees leave? Yes. Might your clients find another agent? Yes. But most of the time, those extreme scenarios don’t play out…or they would have left anyway. When they do, the cause can often be traced to poor, disrespectful or total absence of communications. Most people respond well to transparency, business circumstances, and the commitment to strive for a win-win outcome.

Small Shifts – Big Difference

Whether you are giddy or weary, these small shifts can make a big difference – for your clients, employees and business, and get you what you most want. That sounds like a win – win – win – win to me!