Business Transition Crisis

It's good to be back after an intense conference and learning period in Spain followed by a few days of rest and relaxation.

Certainly helps with one of my success habits, waking up early (by having a six hour time difference).

I read Wayne Vanwyck's book Business Transition Crisis - Plan Your Succession Now and Beat the Biggest Business Selloff In History.

Wayne is an acquaintance and friend so I might be somewhat biased.

This book targets the business owners and some of the points in the book I think are more applicable to small and family-owned businesses. Still, he made many excellent points.

The one thing that i definitely agree on is he suggested setting goals and planning. Success and succession has a lot to do with planning, which makes total sense.

Vanwyck is a big advocate of E-mything you business. This essentially means having process defined in your business and having everything broken down and documented. This makes it easier for a buyer who can then feel the business can run without you (and this is a good idea in any event).

He had an excellent chapter on planning what the entrepreneur who sells the business should do after they have left the business. Selling the business leaves a huge hole and part of success in transitioning involves what are you going to fill the hole with. Again, this is all planning.

There's a chapter on advisors and I have a healthy skepticism towards many consultants and often fear there are actually conflicts of interest because many advisors are paid and aren't truly in your corner. I do believe in taking advice and listening, but it needs to be filtered.

I think the best transition would be if you can find someone who truly cares about you and the outcome for you and can advise from that angle as opposed to worrying about getting paid. Of course this doesn't mean you don't need other experts like accountants, lawyers, advisors and possibly business brokers.

One interesting thing I found in my years of buying businesses is I often liked buying a business which I didn't feel was particularly well run because then I felt that I could make some changes to make it profitable. Some businesses I've looked at seem that the owner/operator is so good and so hands-on that I think I'd lose much of the value when I buy the business because I simply wouldn't be able to keep doing what they do.