How to Protect Your Family Business With a Succession Plan

Retire­ment is an excel­lent time for busi­ness own­ers to con­sider how to pro­tect their fam­ily busi­ness with a suc­ces­sion plan. Pass­ing the torch to a fam­ily mem­ber may or may not be the best plan. You should con­sult a reg­is­tered finan­cial plan­ner to learn spe­cific options for your busi­ness suc­ces­sion. A cer­ti­fied finan­cial plan­ner or licensed estate plan­ning attor­ney is an excel­lent advi­sor for cre­at­ing a suc­ces­sion plan. This arti­cle is not finan­cial advice, it merely points out some items to con­sider when dis­cussing suc­ces­sion plans with an offi­cial advisor.

A suc­ces­sion plan is essen­tial for a smooth trans­ac­tion that avoids fam­ily squab­bling over details and over who runs the com­pany. It’s wise to start plan­ning well before the prin­ci­pal owner wants to enter retire­ment. With­out a firm plan, the fam­ily run busi­ness could be in jeop­ardy. Com­pa­nies that have been highly suc­cess­ful can fall apart when the fam­ily gets into a fight over who will run the com­pany, because no plan is in place. This is why it’s best for the prin­ci­pal owner or own­ers to lay out the tran­si­tional plans in advance, and they should inform fam­ily mem­bers about those plans well before they retire or leave the business.

There have been cases where a founder retires and chil­dren take over the com­pany, but then the new own­ers digress from the pre­vi­ous suc­cess­ful prac­tices and change things like profit shar­ing for employ­ees. This can lead to company-wide dis­sat­is­fac­tion, loss of key employ­ees and other prob­lems that will ulti­mately affect the con­tin­ued suc­cess of this business.

Sug­ges­tions for con­tin­u­ing suc­cess in the fam­ily run busi­ness include the following:

1. Pro­tec­tion for the retir­ing owners
2. Tax min­i­miza­tion dur­ing and after the transition
3. Dis­tri­b­u­tion and/or equal­ity of shares of the com­pany that will be trans­ferred to fam­ily members
4. Appraisal value of the company
5. Vot­ing shares and rules for those that may wish to sell off their shares
6. Train­ing for the future lead­ers of the company
7. Appoint­ment of a board of direc­tors to help dur­ing and after the tran­si­tion away from cur­rent leaders
8. Options for con­tin­u­a­tion of the com­pany if no fam­ily mem­bers wish to stay involved

Just because a fam­ily run busi­ness is in good shape today doesn’t mean this busi­ness will con­tinue to thrive when cur­rent lead­er­ship changes. A plan for suc­ces­sion fol­low­ing owner retire­ment should be devel­oped about ten years in advance of leav­ing the com­pany. This will help the com­pany con­tinue a path of suc­cess despite any tur­bu­lence that may occur due to change of man­age­ment within the fam­ily.

A suc­ces­sion plan is peace of mind for those who orig­i­nated the com­pany and invested years into mak­ing the fam­ily run busi­ness successful. Deciding who will take over is critical to the future success of the business.

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Leadership Creates Business Success – Business Coaching Creates Leaders

If you are a business owner and business success is feeling a little elusive right now you might want to take a closer look at how the ship is being led. If you are the leader of your business and you are not leading, you can rest assured that no one is following. And one thing is certain, if change needs to be effected in the business, ultimately it is you, the leader, who is responsible for creating that change.

A good leader must firstly have the discipline to remain 100% accountable for their circumstances, to develop a mindset that doesn’t sway from integrity and solid values, 100% passion for their vision and the drive to turn that vision into reality.

Sound like you? Or does the scoreboard show that a little lift in the leadership stakes is in order. While I always underscore that the top business leaders have a top business coach to help them in the leadership stakes, here are some business coaching tips I share with my clients that may give you some inspiration or at least a quick refresher in some of the areas to look at.

You don’t need to be the hardest worker in your business to lead by example… you just need to be the most strategic – having a clear vision of where you are headed, what success looks like and the roads you are creating to get there. Clarity = Power. As a leader, you must know What, Why, How, Who, Where…

You need to know what your building looks like when it’s completed… Yes a business can actually be finished and completed at some point, not dissimilar to a house that began as someone’s dream then gets built and eventually sold and renovated to accommodate a new dream or vision.

100% involvement and 100% inclusion is the key to change. How are you orchestrating your resources, do your people know where they are headed and what success is supposed to look like? What areas are underperforming, are you 100% committed and involved?

Communication is the best change agent of them all. As a leader your communication is crucial to influencing a new result or change. What story are you telling? Is it inspiring for others, does it motivate 100% team involvement? Is the story being retold? The best change agent is the one that inspires the total sum of resources particularly people – inspiration can move a world in any direction.

The development of strong leadership often requires external coaching to provide objectivity, extend the parameters, challenge the status quo and enforce accountability. The development of the leader can bring new thinking, fresh ideas and inspire innovation not just in yourself but also across the team. So if business success is lagging look to yourself first as a primary catalyst for change and remember that the greater your inspiration, through your own Business Coach or coaching, the greater the positive change you will ultimately be able to effect.

My name is Stefan Kazakis and I am based in Melbourne, Australia.

I earned a reputation by becoming one of the most highly regarded Action Coaches in the world. ActionCOACH is ranked by Entrepreneur Magazine as the 16th fastest growing franchise in the world, and in the Top 100 international franchises. This means my clients benefit from my experience and knowledge and I work hard to help each of them become a business success story in their own right.

I’m not interested in promises. I’m interested in guarantees. That’s why I guarantee you a minimum 61% increase in your profits after 12 months.

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Business to Business Marketing Affiliate – 3 Tips to Profit

After you build a website, you concentrate your energies into producing a huge amount of traffic to go through your website. This is to make sure that you are able to achieve your target sales and generate income that would be ideally more than enough to break even. However, the effort that it takes to generate the said traffic is at times not commensurate to the amount of sales that you generate. When this reality hits you, then you know that it’s time to consider being a business to business marketing affiliate so that you may take advantage of the traffic passing through your site even if they don’t purchase your specific product.

3 tips that would make your being a business to business marketing affiliate extremely successful

1) Focus on a single niche – some online businessperson try to stuff their websites with all types of advertisements with the hope that they get a more than just a number of “clickthroughs”. Always remember though that the people who visit your site, do so for a reason: because they are interested in your product. With this said, it would be good to focus on advertising items related to your own topic. For example, if you have a website that speaks of travel, then advertise travel related items such as visa application aid and travel insurance. These are items that would interest your visitors a lot more, and may result in more “clickthroughs”.

2) Diversify – It’s always good to start off with one merchant. After the success of your website though, try to add to the income by advertising other merchants. Not all merchants that deal with the same niche are competitors. Going back to the travel website example, you can advertise a merchant that helps in securing visas and at the same time advertise a merchant that provides travel insurance. These two do not get in conflict with each other, but are still in the same niche. The more merchants you advertise, the safer you are when it comes to collecting payments.

3) Be Patient – There are a lot of people who are working online, and this translates to a lot of competition. With the number of websites to browse through, it wouldn’t be a surprise if it takes some time for people to get to your website. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t get any clicks during your first week. Just be patient and move on, because when the traffic starts to come, it will keep on coming. Quitting during your first week may turn out to be the worst decision of your life.

Being a business to business marketing affiliate would help increase the income of a website. Even though it would seem to be something that you are unfamiliar with, try it out. Even if the money it brings is just enough to pay for the website maintenance, then it still takes an expense off your head. There is nothing bad with that.

You must learn more about Online Marketing and other top ways to develop your Business to Business Marketing Affiliate for profits!

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