Successor Development - Trust the Trustworthy

As I go about the closely held business market working with clients and meeting prospects, Successor Preparation and Development and Exit Strategy are very active subjects. The states of mind I encounter in these business owners range from peace and excitement of their impending succession to turmoil and anxiety. Those at peace tend to have a diversity of interests beyond the business and are excited about what they will be doing when they transfer leadership and management responsibility. They are also excited about what their successors will do when they get their time at the plate as they’ve spent quality time and effort training and mentoring them. These owners are proud of their achievements with respect to making the business not dependent upon them. They neither profess perfection nor expect perfection recognizing that their successors will make mistakes and learn from them just as they once did. Most of these at peace owners believe that their successors need to hit only about as well as Hall of Famer, Ted Williams (.402), to take the business to even higher levels of success.   Click here to read the end to this blog.

How Financial Independence Can Impact Succession and Growth Goals

We live in the greatest country in the world! As we prepare to celebrate Independence Day, I thought it would be an appropriate time to reflect upon how fortunate we are to be Americans. Each day when we wake up, we have the freedom to choose how we will invest our time, talents and treasure. Thanks to God and our fellow Americans who have gone before us and who have made the ultimate sacrifice to provide us this luxury, we have the ability to make choices each day.  Some of us choose to invest our time, talent and treasures pursuing the American Dream by working for others while some of us choose to build businesses to provide opportunities for others and in an effort to achieve financial freedom and independence. Achieving financial freedom and independence is a challenging endeavor that requires focus, commitment and discipline. Click here to read the end of this blog.

How to Focus On Outcomes and Get People In the Game

Some people are more effective than others when it comes to succession planning.  A few people are good at it because they have multiple generations of experience supporting them; others are good at it because they have the right team of trusted advisors looking after their interests.  In both cases, they have a proven model they can depend upon. As you participate in your own succession journey, with or without benefit of such experience, there are a few factors that will be important to drawing people into a developing legacy.  When applied deftly, they make the compelling difference between ambivalence and commitment.  Consider these points. Click here to read the end of this article.

Don't Overlook the Employment Contract - How It Can Lock In Your Competitive Edge

In addition to employment contracts being beneficial for business owners, they also can play a very important succession role with key managers. Business owners commonly have concerns that key managers, critical to the continuation of the business’ success, could be recruited away by a competitor. There is also concern that the key managers could become frustrated with their perception of the succession plan and jump ship after the owner’s retirement rather than give the successors a chance to earn respect.  And the nightmare of nightmares is that with access to customer lists, processes and technology, a key manager could hook up with a competitor and inflict devastating damage on the business. These concerns about the commitment of key managers commonly impede exit strategy, successor identification and preparation, the transfer of management responsibility and the transfer of stock. Click here to read the end of this blog.

Don't Overlook the Employment Contract - How It Can Impact Your Exit Strategy, Cash Flow and Protection from the IRS

As a dedicated business succession planner, I am often bringing up the subject of employment contracts. The predictable initial response is “I hate contracts and what role could an employment contract have in my business succession planning?” This question generally comes from someone who has 80% of his/her net worth tied up directly or indirectly in their business and does not have a prayer of retiring without concerns about their financial security. They are plagued with the concerns of “Where am I going to get income?” and “How will I replace my current benefit package?” Fortunately, the employment contract can be a very valuable tool in relieving these concerns and facilitating business succession planning. Click here to read the end of this blog.

Why Employee Contracts Are So Important to the Succession Planning Process

Business Structuring is a critical factor of the interdependent Succession Matrix®. Business Structuring impacts the nine other factors of the Succession Matrix® and accordingly, those other nine factors positively or negatively impact Business Structuring. For more information on all ten factors, refer to the International Succession Planning Association website at www.ISPAssociation.org.  To read the end of this blog, click here.

Succession Planning and the “Right Time” Myth

"I probably should do something about succession planning, but the timing just doesn't seem to be right.  There's a wedding coming up, we've got another grandchild on the way, and none of our children seem to want to have anything to do with the business.  Maybe I should just sell it." That's a distilled version of a conversation I recently overheard in an airport.  I was minding my own business, and I heard those magic few words that immediately drew me in:  succession planning.  What really struck me was how creative and rationalizing we can be when faced with actions we don't really want to take. To read the end of this blog, click here.

Successor Identification - Create A Program for Testing Them Out!

Shel Silverstein writes children’s books.  In one called The Missing Piece Meets the Big O, he covers the role of succession development with a simplicity and singleness of purpose.  For our purposes, the Big O is access to the legendary corner office; and the missing piece is the person who sits in that office after you are finished with it. But, before there can be successor development, there must be a successor identification program in place.  That successor could be a family member, a key manager, or a partner.  Regardless of which, the person chosen must also be a leader. To read the end of this blog, click here.

A Lesson from Football – Take a Half-Time Break

Here is the last post in my partner, Jeff Faulkner's, three part series on reviewing your estate and business succession plans. I hope these posts have encouraged you to take a look at and review your own plan. In my previous two posts, I’ve discussed a couple of situations in which significant changes occurred that necessitated updates be made in the succession planning arena. Fundamentally, succession planning is a strategic planning process.  Just as in your annual forecasting for your business, you have to review your plan on a regular basis to determine where you are relative to where you want to be, and make adjustments as necessary. As an example, one of the things that many of our clients need to do is build up more liquidity apart from their operating businesses.  It is a truism that you will find it hard to let go of your business if you are financially dependent upon it. So, in the planning process, we help our clients identify and define what personal financial security means to them and then help them develop a plan for achieving that security apart from the operating business over a period of time.  If they say I want $1 million in liquid resources and they are currently at $200,000, then we develop a plan to get them there and then we hold them accountable to that plan. What I have learned over the years is that with any type of strategic planning like this, the plan never, I repeat never, works out in a linear process. It’s a dynamic process with ebbs and flows.  What I’ve also learned is that if you don’t follow this type of approach to planning and just hope it happens, the ebbs and flows will always, I repeat always, keep you from achieving your objectives. This is one of the reasons I love the way football games are structured with a half-time break. It gives the teams and coaches an opportunity to evaluate their game plan, what’s working, what’s not working, and sort out what needs to be done differently. So, if you have put a plan in place but have not reviewed it in a while, do yourself and all who are depending on you a favor, and take a half-time break to evaluate your game plan, what you’re doing well, areas you need to improve, and update your game plan. How often do you think is best to take a "half-time break" and review your estate and business succession plans?

When Tax Laws Change, Estate Plans Need Review

I sat down with a long-term client earlier this week and was reminded once again of the importance of regularly reviewing your estate and succession planning. This client is the majority owner of a family owned company and has his children involved in leadership roles. He is in his second marriage to a woman who is not his children’s mother. To read the end of this blog, and find more like it, click here.

Effective Leadership - Hub and Spoke Eventually Chokes

Last year while reading the Orlando Business Journal I came across a one liner that read, “the sign of a good leader is when the business runs as smoothly when the leader is in the business as when he or she is out of the business.” As a succession planning professional dedicated to impacting lives and perpetuating family business legacies, this quote resonated with me. While it occurred to me that the title of this article sounds like a quote from Johnny Cochran, the hub and spoke approach to management and leadership impedes the business’ ability to operate smoothly when the business owner (the hub) is away from the business. And from a succession planning perspective, this can be devastating! To read the end of this article, click here.

Successor Development: There Has to Be One Available

Business owners frequently select their successors with an intuitive approach, or based on experience-informed “gut” feel. Most of the time they’re pretty good at it, but when it comes to evaluating a successor for a family business, the family relationship dynamic inevitably clouds a business owners evaluation. There are emotional entanglements that get in the way of their well-grounded intuition. So to help business owners be less instinctive and more intentional and consciously competent in selecting a successor, there are some key indicators to look for in identifying a successor for your business. To read the ending to this article, click here.

Skip Generation Cross Purchase Agreement

A new client consisting of two 50/50 partners expressed a desire to develop a buy-sell agreement around life insurance policies that they had been sold prior to my engagement. This was an extraordinary business reflected by the unique synergy created by the 50/50 partnership. Each partner had brought unique skills sets to their business that had been affirmed by success beyond anyone’s imagination. The values involved were tens of millions. The planning initiative also involved the updating of estate document and the initiation of strategic gifting. To read the full article click here.

What's the First Step in Succession Planning?

Succession planning can be an overwhelming thought. There is so much to be done. “I don’t even know what I don’t know.” There are so many potential issues. There are so many opinions. There are so many places where things can go wrong. Correctomundo on all points. However, confirmation of your challenge is no reason to resort to ruminating, having no hope, disengaging from pro active behavior and just waiting for a wheel to fall off. Visit our website to read the complete article.