A Father-Daughter Family Succession Case Study
It’s my life’s work to help business owners create transitions out of their companies that meet their most important goals, keep their relationships intact and position their companies to succeed under new leadership. That’s a tall order, and no transition is as perfect as owners envision because, more often than not, one of their goals […]
Use Your Succession Plan to Keep Your Promises
I’ve written in this blog about communication during business transitions. Productive dialogue between owners and successors, owners and spouses and owners and key stakeholders isn’t easy but it’s a requirement for successful transitions. In this post, I will describe how you can use your succession plan to keep your promises. Effective Communication From long experience, […]
Three Rules of Engagement for Successor Development in Succession Planning
In The Dance of Business Successor Development, we described the three phases of teaching and mentoring successors. In Phase 1, owners lead, and successors follow. In Phase 2, owners and successors alternate the lead, and in Phase 3, successors lead, and owners follow. The trickiest part of the dance is Phase 2 because when successors […]
The Dance of Business Successor Development
When was the last time you thought about how you do what you do to make your company successful? If you are like most owners, the answer is “I don’t think about how I do what I do. I just do it.” Part of succession planning, however, involves teaching a successor to do what you […]
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Succession Planning Process: Six Questions Business Owners Must Answer
Have you ever imagined that the transition out of your business could be the capstone of your career as a successful owner? Or do you think of the succession planning process only as contingency planning for your retirement? For a moment, consider the possibility that business succession planning can lay the groundwork for your next adventure and ongoing success of your business […]
6 tips for talking about your business transition
Successful business owners are typically visionaries. They have the ability to look ahead, anticipate both threats and opportunities and take action accordingly. Just as typically, the eventuality they will one day leave their companies can be a blind spot. Even owners who recognize they will put their companies in the hands of successors “someday” often […]
Business Succession Consultants
Succession planning, business transition planning, business succession planning and exit planning: These are several of the terms that business owners see in messages and newsletters from their CPAs, attorneys, investment advisors, life insurance agents, business consultants, business brokers, and even their bankers. Unlike business succession consultants, many of these professionals have added planning to their […]
Top Four Assumptions Business Owners Make About Succession Planning
I’ve written before about why it’s never too early to start business succession planning. Yet, even when owners recognize the benefits of planning for the transition of their companies well in advance of any transfer, some continue to put it off. Why? In my work with business owners, my team and I identified four assumptions […]
Business Transition Strategies
The first question that owners typically think about when they begin to look ahead to leaving their companies in a successor’s hands is some variation of How much is my business worth? or How much cash do I want or need when I leave? How much . . . ? is a critically important question, […]
