As a business owner, have you ever stopped to assess how strong your leadership team is? The abilities, communication styles, processes, and efficacy of your designated business leaders, or management team, are critical. Periodically evaluating your leadership team is also a key component of making sure your leaders are on track to meet goals and…

When it comes to your family business, culture plays a critical role. The business’s values, habits, and structure significantly shape its productivity, decision-making, profitability, and community impact. The complex culture that undermines your company can have a major impact, good or bad, on what happens when it’s time to sell your firm or transition ownership…

Owner dependence has a considerable impact on a business and the potential sale process. This impact comes into play when it’s time to assess valuations and taking the business to market.  Buyers, as well as communities and customers, will want to know about the roles of existing owners. If you’re a business owner and expecting…

Why are family businesses viewed to be more trusted, able to weather the ups and downs of volatile markets, and better positioned for long-term success? What makes them so valuable when it comes to discussions of family business succession and leadership transition planning? There’s no one answer. Instead, successful family businesses often rely on a…

Your business means everything to you — you’ve worked hard to grow and nurture relationships with vendors and clients alike. As you consider what your retirement plan entails, or what the future of your business looks like without you in the mix, you are now faced with the challenge of implementing a solid plan to…

Every employee plays a key role in keeping your business running successfully. When you are considering selling your business, one of the smartest moves you can make is preparing and keeping employees actively involved in the company even when you are no longer in charge. When potential buyers are looking at each aspect of your…

The thought of retirement used to seem far in the future, and although you may be several years away from exiting or selling your firm, it’s never too soon to begin planning for your retirement. It’s also important to begin considering how you plan to fund your life after selling your business. The first step…

Selling a company to a third party is an action business owners take for a multitude of different reasons. Sometimes, they’ve fallen out of love with the work itself and are not as engaged or fulfilled as they once were. In situations like this, the business may be more successful in someone else’s hands. Other…

You’ve devoted a significant portion of your life to working incredibly hard to build your business. Whether you’re planning on retiring in the near future or simply want to sell to another entity and remain involved in a more limited capacity, having a plan in place sooner rather than later is one of the best…