Succession, it is not just a popular TV show.

Succession in any business is vital to ensure that you are set up for success and has minimal impact to the day to day running of your company. These three tips can help steer you in the right direction as you start to design and implement an exit strategy now to help set you up for the future. 

Refine your role - to maximise your return (i.e. potential sale price) it is important to remove yourself from the day to day running of the business and focus on embedding your wisdom and know how within the business. 

Start early – it takes time for ‘succession by design’ (on your terms), therefore it is imperative to commence your planning early, the minimum or recommended planning time is 2 – 3 years, however astute players could start as early as 10 years out. Starting early gives your business and yourself the ability to optimise financial outcomes, develop your next level of leaders and mitigate risk. 

Be clear on your future – it is, also, very important to assess what your future looks like once you have left the business. This will enable a clear delineation from your business and ability to exit the business successfully and happily. Through analysis with business owners, who have recently exited their businesses, the outcome was a resounding satisfaction amongst the owners with their life after an exit had at least as many motivators “pulling” them away from their business as they did motivators “pushing” them out of their company.

Planning and working on your future will set you up for a smoother business succession and the option to choose your exist strategy whether that be leaving behind an incredible legacy and a seamless transition for your employees or a more complex strategic sale.