This week, I had the pleasure of speaking with local business owners and members of the Conway Center for Family Business. My associates and I have enjoyed being Service Providers at the Conway Center for over a decade. My presentation led me to reflect on why business owners are such a key focus for us. As a business owner myself, I have great respect and affinity for those who embark on such a journey. I enjoy seeing successful business owners envisioning the future they want, creating a plan to attack it, and working tirelessly to get there.
This week’s discussion centered around helping business owners with their succession planning. Whether it is transitioning the business to children, selling to key employees or selling outright to a third party, we recommend owners have the same high-level of planning for their succession (and life after) as they do with their actual business planning. From my own experience, I know the degree of detail, thought, and planning that are needed. Time and consideration must be given to having a good start-up plan, a good marketing plan, detailed financial projections and more. Planning for your future should be no less thought out. We help our clients do this by creating a total balance sheet, a detailed pro-forma spending analysis, a total client profile, a family wealth management timeline and much more.
A major time of transition like this deserves careful planning as early as possible. We have been through over 50 transitions and it is a privilege advising business owners every time. I look forward to helping more business owners and helping them achieve the future they have worked so hard to achieve.
-Joel