About six months ago I connected with a business owner, who wanted a conversation about developing a succession plan, the outcome of which would mean him leaving the business.

During our initial conversation, it became clear that whilst he had built a successful business, he was struggling to answer the question “What’s the Next Step?”.  He was torn between staying in the business and working to grow the business and “cashing” out to build his life outside of the business.

To assist him in making a choice the owner had sought advice and counsel from a range of people, including family members, an accountant, a lawyer, a financial advisor, a succession consultant, and other business owners who had successfully exited their respective businesses.

From that conversation, we developed the following framework for the business owner that needed to be acted upon to make his exit from the business a reality:

• In business – to create a legacy by transferring the business internally to the next generation
• In life – to create opportunities outside the business for himself, his partner, and his family.

In the past week, I reached out to the business owner to check-in as to the action taken to implement this framework.

In response, the business owner advised he was continuing to consult with his advisors about what was best the choice for the business and him.

I was blunt in my response, which was:

“My feeling is that all the talk about exiting the business is just that, and that you will never voluntarily leave what you have spent years building.”

 Here is the rub – if that is the business owners’ position, he meeds to be  OK with this choice and get on with helping the business grow & prosper!