In an earlier blog entry, I suggested that you have some conversations with stakeholders about the business, where it stood and what your plans were.  Before you commence that conversation, ask yourself, “Is my business strong?”  What if something happens to you?  Will the business be able to function?  Will there be certain key aspects of your business that will suffer?  What are they?

Business people, particularly those sales oriented are forward looking and optimistic.  As an accountant, I have to force myself to stop always looking backwards, learning from past mistakes and try to look forward with this life experience as a base of support for the methods that I should employ to make the business better.  As a forward looking business person, often, you may not have the time to consider where there may be areas of improvement (read “weaknesses”).

As part of a personal check of your business, you should consider:

1.  identifying these areas of improvement

2. what fixes [on a practical basis] could be put in place to make these improvements

3. set a timeframe for implementing and completing these improvements

Thereafter, you may be in a better position to have a conversation with the relevant stakeholders in the business about succession.

Good luck.

Learn, think, apply!