by Bill Curry
Ask a business owner if they have an end game plan and they will say "yes, I plan to go out on top".
Ask them to define what going out "on top" means and most will say they will either sell their business for enough money to meet their retirement needs or they will transition the business to someone that will pay them an annuity in their retirement.
Sadly what they are saying is that they hope one of those scenarios will happen. And hope is not a plan.
Whether you are a younger or an older business owner you must have an end game plan that is in play. The plan has to consider all the potential possibilities, good or bad, that could happen.
Planning should not be a ‘someday’ thing but a ‘now’ thing and no business owner should attempt to build or execute a plan on their own.
As a business owner, your end game plan is too important to not use the best minds you can engage to help you with it. Minds plural because there are many parts to a properly constructed plan. Aside from tax and insurance implications there is the qualifying of the desired outcomes and the steps to achieve them.
No one person or firm can claim to offer the best solution for all the moving parts in your plan, so you will need to educate yourself to know how you can identify what you need and who to use.
There is no shortage of content on this subject. Most all of it is written by people with an agenda, usually a product or service to sell you. But they are your educators so take advantage of the information they offer.