Succession Planning Services

Like many private business owners, you may be thinking about transitioning to the next stage of your life — this is what succession planning is all about.

Whether you are close to retirement or looking into the future, the choices can be daunting. The decisions you make will affect the future of your business, customers, employees — and most importantly your family.

Our trained facilitators offer professional and confidential services to help you decide what’s most important for all concerned. We help you think through the factors that influence planning decisions, and facilitate discussions with key people who will be affected by those decisions. We won’t tell you what to do, but we will inform and prepare you to make your own decisions.

We help you address issues in the key areas of business strategy, communication, ownership, management and family. Our services include:

Business Strategy

At the heart of any successful business is a well-formulated and executed strategic business plan. We will engage your stakeholders in facilitated meetings, and help you develop focused goals and action plans, realistic time frames and specific performance measurements.

Improving Communication

One of the common themes of family businesses is that the strategy and planning is all locked up in the mind of the owner. Do you know what your key people are thinking, and how well their goals and expectations mesh with yours? Do they know your strategy plans for the future? We will facilitate discussion, connect family and business, uncover individual needs and objectives, and help you communicate and build rapport with key stakeholders inside and outside your company.

Ownership Succession

The question of who will own the business after the current owner or owners leave is rarely simple. Whether it is passed down within the family, transferred to non-family managers or sold to an outside purchaser, this decision should be based on more than a tax-saving strategy. We can help you examine and evaluate your options and consider how to structure a transaction that meets everyone’s needs.

Management Succession

The first step in deciding who will run the business is to identify your management needs and ensure they are aligned with your long-term business strategy. Then you need a plan to attract and retain talented people — talk to them about what’s going on and groom them to take on senior roles. A well-planned succession improves the likelihood of a successful transition and increases the value of your business to investors or purchasers.

Family Consultation

Family businesses are complex — especially when it comes to management and ownership issues. Family members need to be involved in decision making — whether or not they are actively involved in the business. We can help engage your family in dialogue about important business matters and create a forum for dealing with family issues outside the office.