Many small businesses struggle with generational transfer. The transfer may occur when the primary owners want to retire or when one or more of the owners dies. In either event or other similar circumstances, having planned for the transition in advance will make the process much easier and more likely to be successful. Let our business succession attorneys help you plan to plan.
What Is Succession Planning?
Succession planning is the process a company uses to make sure that the right employee fills every vital position with the right skills and experience. It seeks to ensure that, at the time succession becomes necessary, all the critical positions will be filled with the right people with the right knowledge. The ideal is to concentrate on internal promotion rather than recruiting from outside. Having a plan that enables you to keep your workforce steady and progressing up the corporate ladder brings many possible benefits to your company even before you need it for its general purpose.
Failure to Plan Issues
First-generation business owners can have serious difficulty letting go of the business that they have raised and nurtured like a first-born child. Like people who see writing a will like the same thing as dying, many of these owners will see creating a succession plan as a forced retirement. These owners need to understand that succession planning solves problems that can plague their small businesses after their departure. Succession planning is, in reality, the last great gift you can give your business.
Protect Against Sudden Change – Reveal Gaps
By assessing the needs and gaps in your business, succession planning can protect against sudden changes in the business. It allows the business owner to determine the critical positions for the business’s successful operation. And make sure that people are in those positions or in the pipeline to be in them when needed. The analysis will even help the small business owner to understand where key relationships create their own unique vulnerabilities for the business’s way ahead.
Training & Development
Offering a solid training and career development program to your employees isn’t just good succession planning. You will be preparing employees for possible places in the succession. Also, you will be helping them create their own career pathways in your company. These kinds of opportunities can also help with retaining ambitious employees who are looking to rise up the corporate ladder.
Preserving the Brand
Once you’ve left your business in the hands of others. You can no longer control how your “brand,” whatever it may be, is perceived in the marketplace. On the other hand, you can use the succession planning process to ensure reputation in the marketplace. In this way, outsiders won’t be brought in to change the nature of your company.
Consider Succession Planning and Contact a Roseville Business Attorney Today
Think about how succession planning can help you keep your business running after you’re gone. Contact us today to speak to experienced business lawyers who can help you develop a successful succession plan for your business.