IN both buying and selling businesses there are hurdles that can seem insurmountable. These hurdles regardless of where they come from, either real or imagined, can delay, stall or completely derail a person from continuing on the path to business succession and wealth preservation (or creation for that matter). What are some of the hurdles you have been through or saw others struggle with?

Kenny Rogers sung one of my favorite songs of all time. My siblings still will just start singing it sometimes, especially when playing cards. It's a poker song but it applies to any gamble really. Selling too early or too late can be a gamble. Best to learn from someone who knows thw ins and puts of the he game. I just spoke to a buddy tonight who just carried his omma and grampa and now the in-laws are showing signs. I suggested we work on a succession plan now , before they need it in hurray. He likes that.

Just got off a call with a business owner who responded to my offer for free exit assessments. 20 minutes later, she was in tears (good ones). Not because I told her what she wanted to hear, but because someone finally gave her honest, strategic guidance about her biggest asset. She's been building her business for 15 years. Never thought about exit planning. Didn't know where to start. Now she has clarity, a strategy, and knows her next steps. This is why I do this work.

This is a subject about how transferable your business and its value is to your eventual successor be it a relative of your, an employee or 3rd party buyer. The more your business needs you, the less it's transferrable value will be. I was having a conversation last night with an older couple I know well, thay are in their 70's and have ran a Construction cleaning Service for over 50 years. They have paid off all their assets, their house and all but 80k in rehabs on their home. they can and do run on a shoestring and almost half of their 400k annual revenue goes to their employees. He has has had to step back recently due to battling cancer (and winning), she still runs the office side of everything. What can they do? Their owner benefit is actually a wage for her, she is currently not replaceable and as he stepped back their income has dropped because their oldest son has had to cover more, and they hired another worker. They may have $30k of pure owner profit. That's it. What would you do if you were them? hand it all over to the son and train a replacement for the office? or grow the business through your decades old connections, hire subs or crews to do the work and hire a management trainee to take over the office work? I explained that they are currently a Service Provider, they should expand and restructure to be a Managed Service Provider or maybe a Managed Service Organization. Increased sales and contract service providers to provide capacity (they know many whom they helped get started over the years). Manage the sales and back office, let providers provide, take a cut of all they work and then train others to run your office for you. This improves stability of the business, removers owner dependance and so increases value and actual owner cashflows. This of course would have been better to do years ago, but it wasn't on their mind. Better now than never. Succession over closure.