Business Succession Planning

We begin with a conversation about your goals, values and relationships. We want to learn more about the most important parts of your business. We want to know about you as a business owner. Clients often say this is the “best conversation about money I’ve ever had.”

We discuss the people, both inside and outside the company who will make a difference. We will discuss some key information about your business. If we agree to move ahead, we will gather the financial information and details.

Here are some questions you may want to ask yourself as you begin a succession plan for your business:
1. What are some of my most important professional accomplishments?
2. How did I get into this business?
3. What did I love about this business back then? What about today?
4. What are the key strengths I bring to this business?
5. What would I like my key accomplishments to be before I leave?
6. Where do I see this business in 3 years? 5 years? 10 years?
7. Where do I want to be in 3 years? 5 years? 10 years?

We will help you understand the valuation of your business. We will explain the methods of valuation, including discounted cash flow, fair market comparisons, and more. We will learn about your financials, including the tangible assets, goodwill, income statement and cashflow. We will help you form an exit plan. We will discuss your options and narrow our focus to the ones that make the most sense to you. We help you find an outside business valuation expert to give us a realistic set of numbers.

Here are some key questions you can ask yourself as you prepare for a business valuation and business succession plan:
1. What is the five-year trendline for revenue and for income?
2. What is the value of the assets? Inventory?
3. How does goodwill affect my valuation? How much of that depends upon me (my experience, reputation, relationships, etc.)?
4. What are the key drivers of revenue?
5. What are the key risks we face?
6. What opportunities do I see in the near future? And farther out?

Concurrently with the previous steps, we will focus on 3 to 5 key drivers of business value. We will help you identify ways to increase the value of your business. We will also identify threats and weaknesses to your business and help you to shore them up. Growing businesses are more valuable than declining businesses. We want to pay attention to the key growth factors.
Furthermore, businesses with an exit plan in place are more valuable than those without. The succession planning process is designed to increase business value.

Here are some key questions to ask as you consider how you can grow and protect your business:
1. Who will run this business if I die suddenly?
2. What can we do to make my team more successful?
3. What are the key strengths and weaknesses of my team?
4. What risks does the company face if a key person were to die?
5. What can I do to minimize these risks?
6. What technology will help the business?
7. If money were not a problem, where would the company spend money to receive the biggest return on investment?

When preparing for an exit, it is often best to think about selling the business to someone outside the company. Even if the business is nowhere near ready to sell to a stranger, it is important to prepare for the possibility that it might happen. Even if you do not want to sell to an outsider, the preparations help anyone who buys your company.

We start with the value drivers identified in a previous step. We focus on the people and processes that are critical to the business. Then, we focus on the management team. Often, staff training is a necessary part of a third party sale. Additionally, we discuss technology. We discuss the future of the industry. This conversation sometimes opens doors to buyers who may not otherwise have been visible. We interview and likely engage a business broker, investment banker, or other expert to facilitate a sale.

Here are some key questions to ask yourself as you consider selling to a third party:
1. Who has expressed an interest, even remotely, in owning my business?
2. Who are my key competitors and how likely are they to purchase?
3. Who are the suppliers and customers who may are interested in the success of my business?
4. What industry competes with my industry? Who are the key players?
5. What experience, knowledge, personality traits, and other “soft skills” do I want to see in a buyer of my business?
6. What are the absolutes? Without these, I will not sell.

If your goal is to transition this business to your children, existing management team or other people already working in the business, then we form a different plan. We give you tools to talk to your children, key employees and co-owners. We help you measure their likely success, their strengths, and weaknesses. We help you envision a future for the business without you around. Then, we discuss various capitalization methods. One of the most tax-appealing methods may be an ESOP, employee stock ownership plan. We will discuss this, and other, options. We help you receive your desired value. We also help you transfer your business with less personal risk.

Here are some questions to consider as you look at transitioning your business to a person already familiar to you:
1. Who will run the business?
2. What do they need to be able to do that they are not already doing?
3. How quickly can I train them?
4. How much money do I need and want from this business?
5. Am I willing to accept less money selling to an insider than to a third party? How much?
6. Do I need to worry about employee turnover? What will be the power dynamics once this transition happens?
7. What about people outside the business? Namely my customers and suppliers. Do I foresee any challenges?
8. Will I be able to step away? Really? What can I do now to help myself get out of the way of the new owner?
9. How will selling the business affect my identity and relationships?

During a transition, the business is at greater risk than it was before the transition. You will want to make sure you have all the proper risk mitigation. We will evaluate your insurance to handle any unlikely—but disastrous—contingency. We will make an informed decision, weighing the pros and cons.

A complete exit plan takes care of your family and your business in the event of a death or permanent disability of an owner or key employee. The goal here is to make sure that you meet your objectives regardless of what the world may throw your way.

Here are some questions to ask as you consider continuity planning:
1. Can I put together a plan today—even without the details of a buyer/seller transaction—that will make sure my family is safe in the event of my death or disability?
2. Have I put together a contingency plan in the event one of my key team members dies or becomes disabled?
3. Am I sure that I have the right insurance in place for all contingencies, including cyber, liability and other risks? When is the last time I had a third party opinion?
4. What risks—regardless of how unlikely—could set back my business? Think COVID-19 and/or the financial crisis of 2008.

Advanced financial planning brings the real-world back into focus. Your business exists to serve you and your goals, your values, and your relationships. Some decisions will require a trade-off between maximizing your personal financial gains and achieving other goals.

From the onset of the business succession plan, we engage with you to help you achieve your own personal best. Advice incorporates advanced financial planning, risk mitigation, estate planning, tax planning, investment management and retirement income planning.

Questions to consider for advanced financial planning include:
1. What does money mean to me?
2. What do I want to achieve with my money?
3. What kind of thoughts, feelings and concerns do I have when I think about money?
4. What does money mean for my family? What do I want it to mean?
5. What was it like when I grew up? What stories did my parents tell me about money? What do I remember?
6. What do I want for my kids, grandkids and other key relationships? How will my money help me help them with that?
7. How do you want to be remembered?