The Business Transition Coach

Wayne Vanwyck

Description

This is a ‘how to’ book for business owners – especially the baby boomers – who need to prepare themselves and their business for transition or sale. The statistics are frightening. Most business owners are baby boomers and surveys suggest that over 41 percent are planning to exit in the next five years, yet very few have a plan for how to do that successfully. This book helps them to grow the valuation of their business, develop their personal and business goals, and begin to prepare for the day when they put their business up for sale.
"I truly believe there is an opportunity to help many business owners who struggle with this step and help them to avoid the loss of money, dignity and respect because they were unable to get started on a plan."
Millions of business owners intend to move on from their businesses in the next several years yet only a small percentage of them have a written succession plan. Those who don’t plan their business transition ahead of time may have to kiss all their creativity, passion, and hard work goodbye as they face a market soon to be glutted with businesses for sale.
The Business Transition Coach: Your guide to succession planning, exit strategies, and preparing for the big handoff is your guide to transitioning out of any business. Author Wayne Vanwyck shows you through experience and case studies how planning this transition can increase the value of your business, increase its profitability, and keep your options open. His practical advice explains how you can:
• Sort out your personal and professional transition options.
• Prepare your business, your employees, and yourself for transition.
• Create a business plan that makes sense now and multiplies the valuation later.
• Leave a legacy that you can be proud of.
Let this book be your helpful companion on the road to transitioning out of your business and into the next phase of your life.
PREFACE xi
INTRODUCTION xv
1 PLAN FOR TRANSITION 1
1. The Financial Benefit 5
2. The Motivation to Sell 7
3. Fear of the Dreaded Phone Call 8
4. If You Don’t Make a Plan 10
2 GET YOUR LIFE ON A ROLL 14
1. Redefine Retirement 14
2. How Do You Define Success? 15
3. The Value of Written Goals 18
4. Getting Started with Goal Setting 20
5. Business Transition Reality Check 30
3 TRANSITION MEANS CHANGE 32
1. Change Is Constant 32
vi THE BUSINESS TRANSITION COACH
2. Complacency: The Killer of Necessary Change 33
3. Boiling a Frog 34
4. Why Do Most Entrepreneurs Fail to Plan
for the Inevitable? 36
5. Deciding Is Not Enough 37
6. The Eight Steps of the Change Process 38
7. Change Requires Leadership 41
4 CHOOSE YOUR BEST OPTION FOR TRANSITION 42
1. Option 1: Preparing to Sell 43
2. Option 2: Work Hard until You Die or Become Disabled 52
3. Option 3: Burn out and Sell to the First Buyer 54
4. Option 4: Wind down the Business and Close It 55
5. Option 5: Keep the Business 57
5 GET YOUR BUSINESS READY FOR TRANSITION 60
1. Turn Good Intentions into Action 60
2. Take Stock: Where Are You Now? 61
3. How to Estimate the Value of Your Business 61
4. Factors Affecting the Valuation of Your Business 64
5. How to Define Your Transition Goal 65
6. The Benefits of Reaching Your Goal 67
7. Considering the Challenges and Obstacles 68
8. Action Steps: Things to Do, with Timelines 70
9. Is It Worth It? 71
6 BUILD AN “A” TEAM OF ADVISORS 73
1. Selling a Business Is Not a DIY Program:
Find an Advisor 73
2. Putting Together Your “A” Team of Advisors 79
3. Ten Tests for Finding a Trustworthy Advisor 81
7 WORK ON THE BUSINESS, NOT IN THE BUSINESS 82
1. Can You Do More “Leading” Activities and
Fewer “Doing” Activities? 85
CONTENTS vii
2. Time 86
3. Start the Change Process 91
8 EFFECTIVE DELEGATION 93
1. Your Job Description 94
2. What the Business Needs 95
3. An Individual or a Team? 96
4. Benefits and Challenges of Effective Delegation 96
5. An Implied Contract 99
6. Consequences of Not Delegating Effectively 100
7. How Much Authority? 100
8. Who’s Responsible for the End Result? 102
9. Delegation Is Key to Business Success 104
9 CREATE A BUSINESS PLAN FOR TRANSITION 105
1. Where Are You Going? 105
2. Hire a Facilitator 107
3. What Do You Want? 108
4. A More Nuanced Look at Succession Planning 110
5. Practices 116
10 LEVERAGE YOUR ASSETS IN SUCCESSION PLANNING 117
1. Your Most Important Asset: People 117
2. What’s Happening in Your Company? 124
3. The Right People 126
4. Performance Training 127
5. Great People Management 129
6. Visionary Leadership 130
7. Business Diagnostics 130
11 SUCCESS IS A PROCESS 133
1. Where Should You Start? 135
12 TEST THE WATERS WITH A SABBATICAL 148
1. Take a Sabbatical or Long Vacation 148
viii THE BUSINESS TRANSITION COACH
2. The Goal 150
3. New Possibilities 154
4. The Bucket List 154
5. Time off Is Good for Your Business 155
6. Yeah, But … 156
DOWNLOAD KIT 158
SAMPLE
1 The Last Un-Will and Testament 13
TABLES
1 US Businesses for Sale and How Many Actually Sell xvi
2 Cashflow Quadrant 57
3 Working on or in the Business 83
4 Now versus Transition 87
5 Levels of Authority 103
6 Types of Employees 119

Sujets

• Entrepreneurship
• Management

Informations

• Publié par: Self-Counsel Press
• Date de parution: 15 septembre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781770405127
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Business Transition Coach
Your guide to succession planning, exit strategies, and preparing for the big handoff
Wayne Vanwyck
Self-Counsel Press (a division of) International Self-Counsel Press Ltd. USA Canada

Copyright © 2020

International Self-Counsel Press All rights reserved.
Contents

Cover

Title Page

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1: Plan for Transition

1. The Financial Benefit

2. The Motivation to Sell

3. Fear of the Dreaded Phone Call

4. If You Don’t Make a Plan

Sample 1: The Last Un-Will and Testament

Chapter 2: Get Your Life on a Roll

1. Redefine Retirement

2. How Do You Define Success?

3. The Value of Written Goals

4. Getting Started with Goal Setting

5. Getting Started with Goal Setting

Chapter 3: Transition Means Change

1. Change Is Constant

1. Change Is Constant

3. Boiling a Frog

4. Why Do Most Entrepreneurs Fail to Plan for the Inevitable?

5. Deciding Is Not Enough

6. The Eight Steps of the Change Process

7. Change Requires Leadership

Chapter 4: Choose Your Best Option for Transition

1. Option 1: Preparing to Sell

2. Option 2: Work Hard until You Die or Become Disabled

3. Option 3: Burn out and Sell to the First Buyer

4. Option 4: Wind down the Business and Close It

5. Option 5: Keep the Business

Chapter 5: Get Your Business Ready for Transition

1. Turn Good Intentions into Action

2. Take Stock: Where Are You Now?

3. How to Estimate the Value of Your Business

4. Factors Affecting the Valuation of Your Business

5. How to Define Your Transition Goal

6. The Benefits of Reaching Your Goal

7. Considering the Challenges and Obstacles

8. Action Steps: Things to Do, with Timelines

9. Is It Worth It?

Chapter 6: Build an “A” Team of Advisors

1. Selling a Business Is Not a DIY Program: Find an Advisor

2. Putting Together Your “A” Team of Advisors

3. Ten Tests for Finding a Trustworthy Advisor

Chapter 7: Work on the Business, Not in the Business

1. Can You Do More “Leading” Activities and Fewer “Doing” Activities?

2. Time

3. Start the Change Process

Chapter 8: Effective Delegation

1. Your Job Description

2. What the Business Needs

3. An Individual or a Team?

4. Benefits and Challenges of Effective Delegation

5. An Implied Contract

6. Consequences of Not Delegating Effectively

7. How Much Authority?

8. Who’s Responsible for the End Result?

9. Delegation Is Key to Business Success

Chapter 9: Create a Business Plan for Transition

1. Where Are You Going?

2. Hire a Facilitator

3. What Do You Want?

4. A More Nuanced Look at Succession Planning

5. Practices

Chapter 10: Leverage Your Assets in Succession Planning

1. Your Most Important Asset: People

2. What’s Happening in Your Company?

3. The Right People

4. Performance Training

5. Great People Management

6. Visionary Leadership

7. Business Diagnostics

Chapter 11: Success Is a Process

1. Where Should You Start?

Chapter 12: Test the Waters with a Sabbatical

1. Take a Sabbatical or Long Vacation

2. The Goal

3. New Possibilities

4. The Bucket List

5. Time off Is Good for Your Business

6. Yeah, But …

Download Kit

About the Author

Notice to Readers

Self-Counsel Press thanks you for purchasing this ebook.
Preface

If you are a business owner, chances are seven in ten that you are thinking about selling your business but have little or no idea how to do it.
Several years ago, a friend’s brother whom I’ll call Franklin decided to sell his business. He had grown a very successful industrial supply distribution company. He was doing about $10 million in profitable sales, was a pillar of the business community, and was liked by his employees. To all appearances, he was a very successful business owner.
With some fanfare, Franklin announced to his family that he and his wife were going to sell the business and retire in five years. Many who knew his workaholic ways raised their eyebrows in disbelief. He didn’t have any outside hobbies and thought about the business 24/7. He despised vacations and when his wife insisted, he would grudgingly go along (looking for business opportunities along the way). No one could see him walking away from his business without a struggle. Sure enough, although his wife retired right on time, the date for Franklin’s planned departure came and went.
Unfortunately, his plan wasn’t really a plan. It was barely a good intention. Perhaps it was just a ruse to placate his spouse.
As his deadline approached, he threw a monkey wrench into the business, creating a huge challenge that only he could solve. He changed his major supplier after selling the same product line for more than 20 years. To this day, no one knows for sure why he did it, but the consequences were catastrophic. Clients left. Salespeople quit. His business went into a tailspin. Of course, Franklin nobly renounced his intention to retire. Now he could swoop in like Superman to save the day.
Unfortunately, the crisis he created was bigger than he anticipated and things continued to deteriorate. He was under far more stress than ever in his business career. Within a couple of years, he was in danger of losing everything.
His sister, a business consultant, offered to relocate several hundred miles to help him. She ended up running the company because he was so emotionally and physically stressed that he was institutionalized and put on medication to prevent him from committing suicide. He was literally banging his head against the wall.
In the end, he did sell his business for cents on the dollar but the experience was devastating. Franklin’s opportunity to retire with wealth and a stellar reputation turned into a nightmare that reduced him to a shadow of his former self. He lost the respect of his employees, his customers, and his family. He lost millions of dollars. He no longer speaks to his sister, with whom he had previously been very close.
If only someone had said to him when he announced his intention to retire in five years, “Let’s get started! Here’s a step-by-step process that will ensure that you’re ready in that time,” he could have saved himself incalculable grief. But as I looked around, it became obvious to me that no such program or process existed. Sure, there were books that told you how to value your business or how to negotiate the best price. But there was nothing on how to get mentally, emotionally, and practically prepared for the day when you sell or step away from your business.
Maybe this is an extreme example, but in speaking with hundreds of business owners about this, one thing has become clear. It’s a very difficult step to sell a business. It’s an amazingly complex and foreign process. It’s a lot of work. Business owners don’t have a lot of time to do it. And their businesses are their babies … things they have created, nurtured, grown, defended, and loved for many years. Giving them up threatens to leave enormous holes in their lives.
That’s the reason for this book. My humble goal is to alert you to the coming sell-off of businesses as aging entrepreneurs sell and retire in record numbers. If you start planning your transition before it becomes urgent or you have no choice, you can profit greatly. You will be better able to sell your business or put it into family or employee hands in a way that maximizes value for all concerned.
You don’t have to be like Franklin, undoing a lifetime of solid, creative work by not being ready for the next stage in your life and the life of your business.
I’ve struggled myself with this issue. As a serial entrepreneur, I’ve found it fun and exciting to start businesses but difficult to give them up. I’ve written this book for all of us who are struggling with the questions of what to do next, how to let go, and how to get the most value from our years of blood, sweat, and tears.
Introduction

This is urgent. I don’t know about you, but I am bothered by some statistics. I’ll be sharing numbers throughout this book, for example, as of this writing 70 percent of entrepreneurs intend to retire in the next few years but very few of those entrepreneurs have a written plan for succession (PWC, www.pwc.com/ca/en/private-company/once-in-a-lifetime.html, accessed March, 2020).
That’s a tsunami of change, a wave of literally millions of businesses owned by wannabe retirees who don’t have a transition plan. This doesn’t even include those who may die or become disabled in the same time frame. This is a massive liability for the economy and for business owners who don’t