As a business owner, you spend a lot of time working to make your business succeed. But have you spent the time to protect it or the “golden egg” your business has laid? Essentially, planning for what could or will happen to your business may be the most important planning you ever do. Think about it for a moment. What would happen if…
- You became completely paralyzed today? What would happen to your business? Your family?
- You died in a car crash on the way home?
- A heart attack forced you to slow down?
- No planning created a permanent wedge between your children at your death?
- The economy falls apart and your wife is forced into a “fire-sale” situation?
- Advances in technology make your Goose a Duck and you don’t even have a back-up plan?
2 in 3 business owners don’t have a succession plan.1 Why? Perhaps it is because the process can be like visiting a foreign country and not knowing the language.
When Jim, founder of Kennedy Financial, began working in the world of finance, he was a banker. To a banker, the solution to any situation was most often CDs and loan covenants. Then he became an insurance agent—everything could be solved with an insurance policy. To an attorney, the solution lies in having the right legal documents. And guess where the accountant’s focus is? Bingo: taxes! The point is “If you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”
Perhaps this explains why everything is a foreign language—you are stuck in the middle of all of this! There have only been a couple of times over the years where we have seen professionals “already” working as a team for the business owner. And even then there is often something missing.
How often have you had the opportunity to give the rest of the story about your unique situation, future and goals and family dynamics - in one setting, for a comprehensive plan? When information is missing and the hammer is used for everything, you usually end up with a lot of good advice at a pretty high price that really doesn’t fit your situation at all.
This realization was the foundation for our entire “Life Planning” concept. It is also the foundation for our four-step business succession planning process which interprets this foreign language for business owners so that they are not “not” planning - and in turn, planning by default. We are determined to simplify the complexities a successful life has produced and help those individuals and families have the freedom to Live Life on Purpose!
1. 2015 U.S. Trust Insights on Wealth and Worth Survey.