Business succession planning

When you start a business, you have a vision… you have dreams about where you want to be and what you want to achieve. You spend years devoting your energy to creating a successful enterprise and that often comes with sleepless nights and stressful moments.

But when you reach your goals, it is cause for incredible celebration.

There is nothing more rewarding than knowing you’ve built something from the ground up, but for many privately-owned businesses there is no plan for the future past the owner’s involvement.

Without a formal succession plan, what will happen when it comes time for you to retire or if you need to leave the business unexpectedly? Being proactive and developing a formal business succession plan is critical to ensuring your hard work continues to be fruitful for years to come.

The reason you need a succession plan is simple… without one, your business is at risk.

Right now, if something happened that meant either you or a business partner had to leave, the business could lose a significant amount of the wealth you have spent years accumulating.

If a key person suffers an injury and can’t work or suddenly passes away… it’s likely that the business won’t run as profitably or function the same way.

If the business was in a period of growth and required additional capital, it could be hard to secure a bank loan, as the key person in the business is no longer involved. This could also mean your competitors push ahead of you within your market as your business becomes vulnerable.