Emotional challenges of transitioning out of your business
After more than thirty years of walking beside business owners through their transitions, I can tell you where most plans actually stall. It’s almost never the valuation. It’s rarely the legal structure or the tax strategy. Those pieces are complicated, but they’re solvable, and there are plenty of talented advisors who solve them every day. […]
Business Transition Planning Is Not a Countdown. It’s a Multiplier
Somewhere on your to-do list, there’s a line that says something like “start transition planning.” It’s been there for a while. Not because you forgot about it, but because every time you look at it, it feels like it’s asking you to admit something you’re not ready to admit. So you move it. To next […]
Planning Without Leaving: Why a Transition Strategy Is a Multiplier, Not a Countdown
Episode Description: In this solo episode, Elizabeth speaks directly to the owners she calls still building visionaries: the ones who aren’t winding down, who are still growing, and who are still the reason so much of the business works. She unpacks the countdown myth, the belief that starting a transition strategy starts the clock on […]
What a Four-Generation Family Business Can Teach You About Building a Win-Win-Win
A few weeks ago, Andrea Carpenter and I sat down with Family Business Magazine for a live webinar on preparing the next generation for ownership. We were joined by two people who know this journey from the inside: Laurie and Brad Irish-Jones of Irish Family Companies, a fourth-generation family business that has been serving Western […]
What It Actually Takes to Hand a Family Business to the Next Generation
Episode Description: This is a special episode of the Business Transition Roadmap. Elizabeth Ledoux and her business partner Andrea Carpenter recently joined Family Business Magazine for a live webinar on preparing the next generation for ownership, and this episode brings that full conversation to the podcast feed. Elizabeth and Andrea walk through the win-win-win model and […]
A Shared Compass for Family Business Transition Planning
Because movement and direction are not the same thing. Every transition has a destination. But most business owners start moving long before they actually know where they’re going. Dates get set. A valuation gets pulled together. Legal documents start circulating. And somewhere in the rush toward execution, nobody has stopped to ask the harder question: […]
Family business succession planning works best when you build it with your successor
For thirty years I’ve watched owners assume the people coming after them will simply be ready when the day arrives. They’ve built something worth passing on, they’ve worked hard for it, and somewhere along the way they let themselves believe that readiness would sort itself out. Then the day comes. They look over their shoulder, […]
Drones, Renters, or Owners: Leading People Through Transition
Episode Description: In this conversation, Elizabeth sits down with Mike Wettlaufer, rear admiral, U.S. Navy retired, and a serial entrepreneur who spent 38 years leading people through constant change. Mike commanded squadrons, two ships including an aircraft carrier, and a global fleet of commercial and government vessels, and he now serves on startup and space […]
How to Know When It’s Time to Transition Your Business
Most of the owners I’ve worked with knew something was shifting long before they were willing to say it out loud. It didn’t show up on a balance sheet or in a valuation, and it almost never made its way into a transition plan. It showed up as a feeling. A little restlessness. A quieter […]