Here are a few questions you should ask yourself to see if it is time to begin transition planning.
YES NO
1. It’s time to do something different with my life.
2. My burning desire to compete is failing. I may be burned out.
3. My children are no longer interested or capable of running the business.
4. I’ve been approached by a competitor/the market for companies like ours is hot and so it’s a good time to sell.
5. There has been a health scare and it’s time to “stop and smell the roses.”
6. I really don’t know what my business is currently worth.
7. My company is losing market share, revenues and/or profits.
8. In order to diversify my personal assets, I want to take some chips off the table.
9. There are relationship issues within my family or partnership which are making the business emotionally draining.
10. I want to leave my business on my terms from a position of strength.
If you say yes to 0-3 then you are not transition oriented and should be focused on growing the value of your business. Value, transferrable market value, operational excellence etc.
4-6 yes and it would benefit you to talk to us for integrating some of your planning. Planning development stage
7-8 Yes - You need to get going now on a full assessment , due diligence review, start closing value gaps and work on finishing strong! Remember it takes time to prepare, and you need momentum, value growth to extract the best outcome.
9-10 Yes. You are LATE! Get your planning done ASAP and consider a delayed time line, or at least get a real value number and modify your expectations. Its never too late but you should not wait to act on this now.
Don't forget this: If you are in building your business mode, transition is far off. But value build is not. Integrate from day one your business value building plans with your long term personal goals. Planning in your business is planning on your long term personal goals.