4 Steps To a Successful Family Business Transition
We’ve all heard the horror stories about family business transfers that create irreparable damage—parents estranged from children, children at war with siblings, and standoffs that endure for generations. It doesn’t have to be this way! We’ve worked with many families who have moved through business transitions and kept their relationships healthy. While every family is […]
Four Questions to Ask Before Passing a Business to the Next Generation
As a longtime advisor who helps business owners craft plans to put their companies in the hands of successors, I’m often asked questions about how companies can be transitioned to their adult children. Before moving forward, I suggest that there are at least four questions to ask before passing a business to the next generation. […]
Four Ways to Make Your Business Resilient
Resilience is a quality we cultivate in ourselves and try to instill in our businesses because the greatest life or business plan in the world can’t prepare us for every tough challenge or unforeseen situation. Well, the ongoing interruptions in the supply chain, the war in Ukraine, continual mutations in the COVID virus, a tight […]
Cut the Ties of Dependency Between You and Your Business
Owners wear many hats as they grow their businesses: rainmaker, HR manager, CEO, cheerleader, and director of finance, to name a few. Yet if they are still wearing all these hats as they move toward their business transitions and Next Adventures, that’s a problem. If you don’t cut the ties of dependency between you and […]
Fear is not a business transition strategy
I spoke recently with the owner of a successful business whose two sons had been active in the company for the 20 or so years since they graduated from college. She told me that it was time for her to start putting the company into their hands, but just thinking about the process made her […]
Our Business Succession Consultants
I’ve always resisted the term ‘consultant.’ Maybe it’s because the old joke pops into my mind that a consultant is the person who removes the watch from your wrist and tells you the time. When I had to pick a title for myself 30 years ago, I gravitated away from consultant and chose Strategist & […]
Family Business Governance: The Dinner Table vs. The Board Table
In our last post, we asked you to consider two forms of business governance: formal and informal. As transition strategists, see the huge advantages of formal business governance, especially in family businesses and especially before transitions begin. In this article, we approach the topic from a different perspective and ask you to consider the two […]
Why Bother with Family Business Governance?
Business governance isn’t a topic that excites most business owners until something happens that makes them wish theirs had it. As transition strategists, however, governance excites us because it is a critical element in the success of a business as it is transitioned from one generation to the next. In this article, we look at […]
Our Answers to The Big 6™ Succession Planning Questions
One of the tools we use to help business owners organize their transitions out of their companies and onto their Next Adventures™ is The Big 6™. An owner’s answers to these six questions create a compass that guides them as they progress in their transition journeys. We’ve written about these questions and how they relate […]