3 Steps - Succession Planning for Owners of Small businesses
As a small business owner and operator, you have toiled hard to build a great product or service that your customers and employees love. As an owner, there are million things to take care of and creating a succession plan or planning for an exit never really crossed your mind. The most common reason for not creating a succession plan is that many times the owner does not know where to start. One can understand the complexity and the emotional nature of that planning exercise.
In this Forbes article, the author (Bill Conerly) provides three simple and easy steps that any small business owner can follow:
Step 1: Understand and Learn your Choices
Like anything else in life, speaking with people who have done it in the past or currently doing it, will tremendously help in gaining the understanding of the subject. Have atleast 10 conversations on the subject with people who have created or creating a succession plan
Step 2: Document your Options
Write down what methods worked for them and what did not. Example, having conversations with the family members and preparing your son, niece or grandson for a transition, Or Organizing for a sale
Step 3: Plan the next steps
As basic it may seem, it best to plan it out and write down which option works for you best. That will increase your chances of success and having a robust succession plan in place
Please read the Forbes article in full here.