Tag Archive for: exiting your business

Get your business fit for retirement

How we helped this business owner double his revenue and retire with confidence

It is possible to exit or sell your business and gain a strong retirement income. For so many businesses, succession planning is an overlooked “nice to have” element of business management; an activity to “get to” when the more pressing matters of day to day management, sales, and business execution are in play.

But, without addressing succession, you can put yourself under too much pressure when things are “down to the wire” with retirement in sight. Your team can be left feeling uncertain about the longevity of their roles and the future success of the business.

As a business owner, keen to retire, sell or otherwise leave the business in a good condition, succession planning is crucial.

One of the key services offered by Gibsons is helping businesses to do just this, and we have many case studies to share. Our experienced consultants can support you throughout implementation and ensure increased business value and success,  helping you exit on the best possible terms.

Over a 4-year succession planning program, we did exactly this. We supported one of our manufacturing sector clients move from an $8m to $18m turnover business, with the transition to a new management structure and clear succession of key management and the owner. This business has since doubled that size, and with a great General Manager and team in place, continues to provide its owner a very healthy income in retirement.

Succession planning can take many pathways and raise many different issues and this business was no different.

The issues were weighing so heavily on the owner, he had begun to doubt he could ever retire and extract the value that his family had spent three generations building.

Working closely with him, we created a business plan to identify key strategies to revitalise the business and introduce succession preparedness activities, like management team structures and formalisation of processes. Mentoring of key management staff commenced. Operations were reviewed and rationalised, and transition plans implemented. Human resource processes and an accountability structure was set in motion.

A future for the business was mapped out, with career paths for younger members of the team and exit strategies for the older members of the team.  A Customer Relationship Management and sales management process were also established, and key management roles were transitioned.

3 years into the plan, the owner/Chief Executive Officer was in a position to semi-retire.

The final year of our succession planning saw a marketing program enacted, to grow attractive markets and position the company as the leading Australian manufacturer in those sectors.

A much larger and more profitable business was created, and Gibsons are still relied on to this day by the owner, to ensure the business remains on track with growth and success into the future. Placing Gibsons in this kind of role can bridge the gap between business owner vision and new management, allowing them to retire with peace of mind.

 

Timing is key

“Retirement timing is always a tricky thing. I think it’s different for everyone. How you say goodbye to the thing you have really focussed on that much is a tough one. I’ve always intended to leave in good shape, to exit on a high note”. – Damian Woetzel

Business owners will inevitably move on from their business, yet the data shows that succession planning is typically last on their list of priorities. Business leaders are usually focused on building the business, and don’t like to think about the day they will leave it behind. But the reality is that planning for the sale or succession of your business is one of the most important decisions you can consider, and that proper succession planning will deliver the optimum results for you, your employees and the new owner.

To understand basis for succession planning, take yourself forward in time and imagine what you want to put on the table for potential buyers. You want to show them:

  • A successful business with a steady sales growth over the last 3 years
  • A stable management team which has demonstrated their management skills over many years
  •  A stable cash flow over the last 3 years, and a strong financial position
  • A predictable future income for the business, ideally supported by long term contracts
  • No legal disputes
  • A stable and engaged work force
  • A very presentable premises with well-maintained assets
  • A managed business that does not rely on the current owner for its success.

When a business can tick all these boxes, a succession plan can be implemented quickly, but unfortunately this is not often the case. This timing can make an enormous difference in what you take away from the closing table.

Succession planning should ideally start more than five years ahead of the business sale, with more detailed planning over the three years before the planned exit. If your circumstances allow you proper time to plan, you will be able to turn your attention to critical issues that need to be addressed before the sale. Depending on the business these types of issues might be:

  • The owner is heavily involved in operations. When they leave, production, sales or other areas will struggle.
  • The product portfolio is at the end of its life cycle or under threat of cheaper Asian imports.
  • Other key members of the management team will also leave once the owner leaves, and the business depends heavily on single individuals because of their knowledge or skills.
  • The company has no sales plan and a very unstable sales history

Within a reasonable timeframe, most issues are fixable – although one of our Gibsons Consultants fondly remembers a client who stated “I am 73 years old and want to get out of the business by the end of the year”.  Succession planning in this environment is obviously challenging and reduces the options on the table. In succession planning, timing is everything!

 

The key to successful succession planning

Whether or not you like to think about it, it’s inevitable that one day you’ll leave your business. It may be that you decide to sell up and enjoy the fruits of your labour in retirement, or you have to exit the business due to health reasons. Whether today or far in the future, the time will come when you, as a business owner, have to answer: Who will continue to run my business?

The key to successful succession planning is to ensure you are not asking this question too late! Leaving it until you have reached an age where you are no longer healthy enough to work, or when the enthusiasm that drove your business to success has disappeared, will devalue your business.

You could decide, or need, to sell at any point in time – but it takes time to have the business in a state to maximise the sale value. The reality is that planning for the sale or succession of your business is one of the most important decisions you can consider, and that proper succession planning will deliver the optimum results for you, your employees and the new owner.

Succession planning has a time horizon for the next ten years and allows you to plan ahead all the necessary changes for an optimal handover. A succession plan answers two basic questions:

  • Who will own the company in the future?
  • Who will run the company in the future?

For many SMEs, the owner is heavily involved in the daily business, so essentially the owner and the managing director are the same person. A Succession Plan might split these two roles, with a potential scenario being that the owner first steps back from operations while remaining the owner, and a certain amount of time, transfers the ownership.

But first, the current owner has to answer some fundamental questions:

 

1. What is my target for the transition?

  • Maximum upfront money
  • Legacy for my family
  • Protection of my brand name
  • Shortest transition period
  • Job security for my staff
  • Monthly income for the retirement

2. How much do I want to be involved after the transition?

  • A day or two per week
  • Consult to the business for some years
  • Bye, gone fishing

3. When do I want to step out?

  • Next 3 to 5 years: Plenty of time to make the company really attractive, optimise the product portfolio, clean up structure, train internally or hire required key positions
  • Next 2 to 3 years: Sleeves up, clean up fast, fix broken processes, prepare accounting
  • Less than 2 years: Doable, but no time to waste. Some transition models might be already gone, avoid a simple fire sale

The answers to these questions will guide your timeframes and approach.  It’s all about having choices. If you have a plan or strategy in place, then you can choose what you really want to do, at the time when you want to do it. And isn’t that what success is all about?