In my experience, a smooth and successful succession and transition of a business can take 10 years….or more.  You may say, that is such a long time.  You have to keep in mind that for most businesses, the day to day requirements and obligations in a business leave little time for the planning.  In order to move succession forward, you have to make time for this critical planning.  One of the first steps is the planning forthe succession.  There are three aspects of the planning to consider:

1. transfer of ownership

2. transfer of responsibility

3. transfer of knowledge

I have purposefully put these in reverse priority order because from my experience, these are often the order in which the owner of a business will address the issues.  They are backwards.  The first and most important aspect of succession is to ENSURE THAT THE BUSINESS CONTINUES OPERATING IN THE LONG TERM.

Without a business, there is nothing to pass onto the next owners and operators of the business.  This transfer of knowledge can take many forms. Most importantly, this knowledge has to have structure.  I will go into more detail in later blog posts on how a transfer of knowledge can be facilitated with a good structure in place.

Enjoy the day!!