TIMING MATTERS
When should succession planning begin? That’s a bit of a trick question. If you’re the founder of your company, it began on Day One. When you launched, you (and your partners, if any) had responsibility for every aspect of the business. Slowly but surely, as you’ve grown you’ve given up first one job, then another, until you’ve arrived at this point.
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Even if you’re not the original founder, you should be on a similar trajectory. Ideally, your succession plan should culminate when you give up the last job you have, one that the company is benefitting from but no longer dependent upon. If you’re not yet at that point, we can help you create a framework and timetable to get there.
Some companies have the luxury of long-term planning. Others have to triage a sale. The approach we take depends in part on the amount of runway you have.
If you are the original founder, the rest depends on how quickly you’d like to move on. Within a year? We have some triaging to do. Two to five years? Doable, but we need to get going. More than five years? This is ideal, because it provides the most flexibility and opportunity to ensure that your succession plan – and the company itself – fires on all the right cylinders at the correct time.
Our philosophy remains unchanged, but our approach differs depending upon your timeframe. The best place to start is with an initial conversation.