Surviving Succession: The Most Important Business Decision You Will Ever Make

An excerpt from Surviving Succession, an easy-to-read, no-nonsense guide for founders and leaders weighing their future. Amazon | Barnes & Noble

There is a reason we call it “surviving” – you truly have to continue to exist as an individual, separate from your business, and endure despite the difficult circumstances and challenges that may be in your path.

Imagine, for a moment, that time has stopped, and you get to step back and look at the years - decades, even - that you have spent founding, owning, managing, and leading a business. At this point, you have worked so hard that time seems to have just passed you by. You lost yourself in your company, in your projects and deals, in your passion to grow and provide. You provided for employees and families - maybe even competitors. You showed up early, left late, and people looked to you as the backbone, the cornerstone to the business you had become synonymous with – you and your business were one. You worked so hard that you never once considered your leadership transition, a transfer of ownership, or a succession plan.

And then, one day, you woke up and thought: I think I’d like to do something else now. It’s like that scene from Forrest Gump when, after Forrest has spent years running across the country, he suddenly stops one day and says, “I’m pretty tired – I think I’ll go home now.” Something in you changed or shifted. It wasn’t overnight, and perhaps you had glimpses of it along the way, over the years. But now, the spark that ignited you each day to go to your business and own, manage, and lead is replaced with a wondering: what’s next for me?

This book is a short, straightforward, easy-to-digest series of topics and questions to help you not only explore the answer to this wondering, but to begin taking small, meaningful steps toward the rest of your life. Surviving Succession is just that, surviving the challenging, grueling series of hurdles that, if left unplanned for and unchecked, will take your business down, and likely you down with it.

90% of family businesses just like yours do not last past three generations, and nearly 9 in 10 entrepreneur-founded small companies eventually fail – this is not coincidence. And while you are unique, you are not unlike the tens of thousands of business owners who, like you, have gone to work every day for the past 10, 20, or even 30 years and thought at one point recently, “I can’t do this forever, and maybe it’s time to think about what’s next, and how my business will fare without me.”

90% of family businesses just like yours do not last past three generations, and nearly 9 in 10 entrepreneur-founded small companies eventually fail – this is not coincidence.

The answer to this wondering lies in two places: one, in part, is this book; and two, more importantly, it lies within you – but, only if you prompt the reflections, planning, and processes necessary to begin your journey away from your business and towards the life you will live afterward. This life, which is waiting for you, is one of new beginnings, new memories, and a rested, refreshed you.

I have written, led, studied, and advised on countless succession plans over the past decade. I wrote and executed my own following COVID and supported a board, leadership team, employees, and clients in not only accepting the reality, but also living its benefits. There is a reason we call it “surviving” – you truly have to continue to exist as an individual, separate from your business, and endure despite the difficult circumstances and challenges that may be in your path.

This book covers those challenges, the life on the other side of them, and how to get there. Think of it as a short, three-part survival kit that clearly and succinctly paints a picture of the wilderness setting in around you, the safe and open field you are trying to get to, and the path to get there. The path is narrow, treacherous, and full of twists and turns back into the thicket – but there does exist a path, and to get to that safe and open field, you need to find this path, follow it, and trust that it will lead you where you truly want to be.

Where you want to be is where so many others just like you, who have lived a life of business ownership and service to employees, customers, and family want to be. It is a life where your business legacy has been written, and the chapter of your ownership and management has been appreciated, honored, and closed. It is a life of bucket lists, grandchildren, hobbies, and leisure. You have earned it, and it is waiting for you.

Your business legacy has been written, and the chapter of your ownership and management has been appreciated, honored, and closed.

If you are not planning on working forever, and you are not entirely sure how to leave, this book is for you. It will serve as a compass. And while a compass alone will not get you to your destination, it will orient you through the journey ahead. If used correctly, it will ensure you survive.

That is the goal: survival. Surviving Succession may not be the only thing you need to help you move on from your business, but it will surely help prepare you and make sense of the journey ahead.

Let’s begin.