Recently, Fortune Small Business magazine conducted a survey of owners of privately-held, small & mid-sized businesses in the USA. Two questions were asked:

• How critical to your business’ survival is succession planning?
• Have you done anything about formalizing a succession plan?

The results were extremely interesting. More than 95% of the respondents said a succession plan was critical to the long-term survival of their business, but a staggering 85% had not done anything to formalize their succession plans.

This survey reinforces information we learned first-hand several years ago when Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 89% [?]

“I will sell if I receive the right offer, but I don’t want to market the business!”

Despite its obvious flaws, the above statement reflects the position taken by a surprising number of business owners. In fairness, marketing your business is time consuming and may jeopardize a hard-earned market position if “word gets out”, so the position is understandable. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense!

The “strategy” is flawed because it results in a reactive positioning, yielding all control to the buyer. It suffers from two serious deficiencies: Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 63% [?]