Your Growth Roadmap

Buy-Sell activity across a diversity of industries is high, providing opportunities to owners who want to grow. Why is this so exciting for succession planners? Well, business growth is one of the core foundations for succession.

Success is the heart of succession, and growth is generally needed to succeed through multiple generations.  If a business is not growing, it is fading away.

We have the opportunity to interact with business owners across the country, from a diversity of backgrounds.  The following are a few themes as it relates to growth and strategic planning.

I thought succession planning was all about retiring or exiting the business. Therefore, how is business growth remotely important to succession planning?

The best defense is a good offense.  Your competitors are looking at opportunities to grow, so they will eventually begin to take market share if you don’t have your head up.

As a business owner, you have various growth options, internally, externally, and naturally from your entrepreneurial drive. Your key leaders and family must be involved and support the strategies for growth. Succession planning aligns vision and strategies to achieve the organization’s mission and vision. So don’t fall victim to the thinking that succession planning is equal to retirement or completely exiting the business.

So, the earlier you engage in succession planning, the better you are setting your business, family, and future up for success.

If I am seriously considering acquisition as part of my growth strategy, do I need to, or should I involve my family and key employees?

When looking to acquire and grow your business you need to ensure that your family, key leaders, and business are also ready for acquisition.  You can’t do it all and assimilating an acquisition into an existing culture is hard work.  You need a strong team all rowing in the same direction to succeed. To set your business up for success, match the goals of acquisition and or long-term business succession strategy to the goals of your organization by asking key questions such as the type, size, and location of the potential acquisition, along with the capital requirement.

What things should I consider in my planning if looking to grow through acquisition?

When looking to grow through acquisition, there are three critical elements to ensure Succession Success™. Time. People. Money. When deciding to grow through acquisition, you must invest time to study the brand, the market, the culture, due diligence, closing, and time to operate the business. You also need the money to fund it and the people to run it because you cannot do it yourself.

Growth is one of the core foundations of succession planning. Succession planning transforms your vision into reality acting as a roadmap for creating your vision.

The only constant one can plan for is change.  Strategic planning positions the business to address the probable, possible, and potential contingencies impacting business success. 

Click the following link for more drill down resources on Strategic Planning

Sign up for our monthly e-newsletter to stay informed on how to overcome related succession planning issues.

We can help you with insights, other resources, and see if it makes sense to work together. At the very least, in 30 minutes, you may get some ideas you can apply to your business right away.