Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Succession Planning: Think Well Ahead

Are You Excited About Your Future?

What Happens To The Business After You Have Gone?

You will spend a great deal of your lifetime building
your business.

Come the time when you are ready to transfer
the business to a younger generation, how will
you plan for it? Have you done so already?
Discover some of the unique issues in planning
for and implementing the transfer of the family-owned
business. Business coaching can help to navigate some
of the delicate areas of your succession planning process.

Estate Planning And The Business Person

How long is it since you have clearly analyzed,
what you would like to happen to your personal
and business estate upon your death?

Have the following matters really been addressed?

For example:

What is the business really worth today?

What amount of debt is outstanding?

What is the net worth of your estate?

How would your spouse be provided for?

Would a family member take over the business?

Would this person have to buy out your share?
Or perhaps all shareholdings?

Are there any other family members you would
like to provide for?

Would you want to sell the business and would you want your estate to provide an equitable inheritance to each family member?

If not where would the cash come from?

What are the Capital Gains Tax consequences of your Will?

You can ensure that the right amount of cash
is available to carry out your wishes
through estate planning.

Key Difficulties

Lack of viability of the business

Lack of planning

Little desire on the owner's part to transfer the firm.

Reluctance of offspring to join the firm

Heirs or beneficiaries...how to tell?

But wait a minute... We've talked about what happens if you die. What happens if you don't? What do you want to happen with the business into the future? You plan to stay working until you drop, or do you have other things you want to do with your life in the years to come. Do you want the business to continue when you retire? Who will run it then? Will you sell it or pass it on to your children? Do they even want it? How will you get paid for it?

Business succession planning should be an ongoing process, not an event. It is planning to be in charge of the future you want for your business, and for yourself.

Picture the future you want... see it - feel what it's going to be like - and then you can build toward making it the reality.




Thinking Of Getting A Business Coach?Lindy AsimusDesign Business EngineeringGet Help For Your BusinessDownload your free 24 Page Action Plan Marketing Workbook! Subscribe to Actionbites Blog





Lindy Asimus
Business Coach & Social Media Development
Design Business Engineering

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Wednesday, April 21, 2010

The Secret Asset In Any Business

Business owners often work hard and try to think of everything in their business. Yet this element which can eventually become the biggest asset in the business... is overlooked completely.

What is it? It's your client or customer base.


Corporations are getting amazingly good at collating information on customers now using bar codes on coupons and the like. Some might consider this "too much" information. For the small business owner though, while this level of data collection is less available, there is a lot more information available - and known to merchants - than ever get collected, stored and analyzed.

This information, on both a Prospect database, as well as a Customer Database that is set up for marketing purposes (and no, your customer list for invoicing won't do!), can be the key to retaining business, gaining new customers and growing referrals from customers and your networking partners. In fact, your networking partners can have their own database! This attention to detail can form part of what makes your business stand out as different.
This is crucial to take in hand and get right, since it will have a direct effect on the profit potential of the business and the price the business may sell for at some time in the future. It will also have a big impact on making the next buyer WANT to buy the business.

And don't forget, there is nothing more stress-relieving than happy long term customers, buying more and bringing their friends with them!


What can you do to get started?

Here are four things to get you started.

Create a system to capture information you have on prospects.
Improve your data collection process for customers.
Implement a customer 'touch' program.
Start!


Have more ideas? Let's see them!



PS Yes, love to work with clients on issues like these!- Lindy


Related:
Remember to build your mailing list
What to do next when you feel like giving up
Send cards for marketing and friends automatically using this Cloud app
Step up in your business - Here's how to improve performance
How to get your business found online

Thinking Of Getting A Business Coach?
Lindy Asimus
Design Business Engineering
Get Help For Your Business


Download your free 24 Page Action Plan Marketing Workbook!

Subscribe to Actionbites Blog