Business Succession Planning
Business succession planning starts with assessing your current situation and contemplating your future goals.
Whether you are the current or future owner — whether your business is a family-owned operation or a small business — a crucial first step in business succession planning is to evaluate your needs.
Business Succession Planning Goals
Each individual business owner may have his or her own business succession planning goals, both short- and long-term. Ultimately, the main goal should be to ensure the future success of the business. As you think about business succession planning, you'll want to consider:
- Who do you want to be in control of the business in the future?
- When will be the best time to begin the business transition?
- What provisions can you add to your business succession plan that will prevent the forced sale of valuable business assets?
- If you have children, how can you distribute business assets to those who are active in the business, while maintaining fairness to your other children?
- If you are retiring, how can you balance the future success of the business with a comfortable retirement?
Your goals, and those of the next generation of owners – whether they are family or not – may be complex, and will need to be weighed carefully as you lay out your plan for the transfer of the business.
Start business succession planning by completing an estate inventory, which details your business assets and liabilities to give you a basis from which to work when sitting down with your business transition team.
Business Succession Planning for Family Farm or Small Business
Non-family Small Business Succession Planning
