Whether you founded a used part salvage lot or followed in your mother’s footsteps and took over her orthodontist practice, you own a business that serves the local community. That business may represent the primary source of your personal income and also a large percentage of your personal wealth, which you may have reinvested in company facilities and equipment.
You may already recognize that you need to address the business and its assets in your estate plan so that the right people profit from your efforts to develop the business. What you may not yet have considered is the importance of choosing the right successor to take over the company when you retire or die.
Helping identify the right candidate is an important part of the succession planning process.
What qualities make you successful?
For some people, like medical workers and other white-collar professionals, proper education and state licensing are a big part of what makes them fit to run a specific business. However, operating a successful company also requires people skills, careful organization and many other professional talents.
As someone who has run the business successfully for years, you understand what is necessary to help the company continue growing. From training requirements to professional history expectations, there are many qualifications that will contribute to someone’s ability to serve as your successor.
What people could fill your role?
If there are multiple employees at your company, you may already have a short list of viable candidates for your successor. The people that help you run the company now may already have relationships with your top clients and a good understanding of how you operate the business.
Your succession plan might include not just suggested training and characteristics but also a list of people that you believe would fill your role relatively well. Rather than waiting until right before you retired to create a succession plan, it will protect the business more if you create it as early as possible. You never know when a medical event or car crash might leave you unable to run the business.
Addressing your organization’s future leadership needs through careful business succession planning will help provide more stability for the business itself and the people at employs.