When business people talk about the baby boomer generation, the talk usually is about the high number of employees who are quickly approaching retirement.  As they ride off into the sunset, they will take a generation of knowledge and experience.

This baby boom generation is likened to a “Pig in a Python” because it’s seen as an unusually large demographic lump moving through time.   The baby boomer phenomenon isn’t a concern limited to employers.   It also portends that the huge number of baby boomers who own business, large and small, will be faced with selling, passing down or liquidating their businesses.

Aside from the issues a recession might present in terms of fewer buyers, reticent lenders and depressed valuations, many of these aging proprietors might also suffer from self-inflicted wounds to their income statements and balance sheets.

Many sole proprietors eschew accepted strategic planning methods or family business planning consultants – preferring instead to keep their plans in their heads or on the back of a napkin.  The succession planning and organizational alignment imperatives become last-minute activities embarked upon when the owner decides it’s time to exit or transition the business to new hands.

Bob Wilson wrote about the need in his article, Selling the Business as a Succession Plan.  Time is short.  For a mid-size company, a successful succession planning process can seldom be developed and executed in less than five years and the baby boomer clock is ticking.

If you’re the owner of a going concern, how would you answer these questions:

• Can your business survive your departure?
• Would you be comfortable taking a six-month sabbatical this year?
• Are you building a team that can perpetuate the value you’ve created?
• Have you hired people to do what you do better than you can do it; or, have you hired people to do what you tell them to do?

If you can’t answer these questions to your satisfaction, we can help.  Call me.