Setting Up for Success – Succession Planning and Your Business Your business is an important part of your life story.  Your family is thriving because of your dedication to a business that represents your passion and expertise.  Protecting your lifework and creating a solid succession plan that harmoniously merges family circumstances and business considerations is imperative.  There are many misconceptions and misgivings when starting the discussions of succession planning.  We have developed a list of some common myths that you may encounter during this important process.   In this month’s article we will discuss the first myth as it relates to a family owned business where it has been decided to keep the business in the family rather than sell to an outside individual or entity. There will be plenty of time to plan later Most business owners are busy running and growing their business and don’t want to step away to work on something that they feel is too far down the road. This is certainly understandable as the business owner usually has much to do and wears many hats. Unfortunately, sometimes something bad happens out of the blue and now the family is faced with doing succession planning in the face of chaos. The most effective planning occurs when done well ahead of time. Identifying and developing emerging leaders takes time. The idea is to plan your succession well ahead of time so that time is on your side as you work through the steps of identifying the leader, developing the plan for how and when the buyout transaction will happen and finally exiting the business when you are ready. The goal is for you as the owner to be able to afford the type of retirement that you want and for the business to continue to thrive after you are gone. So where do you begin? In almost all cases you should start with a business valuation to get an idea of the current value of the business. You also want to make sure your will is up to date. Finally you want to make sure that you review your life insurance needs to make sure the business and family is protected against the untimely death of the owner. At Sgroi Financial we can bring the necessary resources to the table to help you navigate this process. If the thought of succession planning is keeping you up at night we can help!