Full Focus Limited
P O Box 33489
Takapuna, Auckland
t: 09 489 1650
f: 09 489 1650
David Martin: 0274 902 401
Kathy Martin: 027 2800 564
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Will your business survive to the next generation?
Working as specialists alongside family businesses for some 30 odd years has shown us a thing or two. One of them is that succession planning often falls short of the mark. Only one-third of family businesses survive the transition to the next generation. And worse still, the odds are stacked against your grandchildren (at 10 to 1) that they will ever take over your business.
So why is that? What’s missing that has family businesses fall by the wayside?
Planning – that’s what’s missing. People just don’t want to deal with the issue of business succession. Either that, or as well as that, is the absence of any qualified successor.
Here are 5 steps you can take to ensure your family business will be passed on to the next generation:
1. Determine whether business succession within the family is a viable 
alternative
- Are your children capable of running the business?
- Are they interested in succeeding you?
2. If there’s no viable successor in the family, explore other options
- Sell to another business
- Split the business
- Hire an interim leader
- Take the company public
3. Develop your succession plan
- Accept that a succession plan is a necessity
- Identify your successor
- Start the process early
- Make sure everyone involved has a clear understanding about the plan and their role
- Establish a clear timeline for the process
- Develop a clear business plan that extends beyond your retirement
- Obtain outside advice
4. Monitor the implementation of the plan and make changes as necessary
5. Co-ordinate your succession plan with personal tax planning for retirement and the distribution of your estate.
We have more information on this topic, together with some real life case histories of family business succession disasters.
If you know someone who has their own business, please feel free to forward this newsletter on to them.
Do you have any questions?
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Don’t forget to check out our latest blog posting
Check out Kathy’s blog on Women in Business.
Keep up to date with progress on the eBook. You may even have some great comments, feedback or suggestions – please feel free to send Kathy an email or leave comment on the blog.
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