If you’re like me you pour your life and soul into building your business. But when did you last stop and ask yourself, ‘What for?’
When I recently asked myself this question the answers came pretty quickly.
At first I wanted to control my own financial destiny. That’s why I started my own business. When I was growing up my parents went through some tough financial times. I wanted to make sure that my own family had a buffer.
As my business matured, my confidence grew, and my focus moved to maintaining a good lifestyle for my lovely wife and three young children. We have a nice house, late-model cars, and our kids go to a quality school. Given the hours I still work, my wife and kids get to enjoy this lifestyle more than I do. But I still feel good about being able to provide this for them.
As I get older I am getting more regular reminders that I may not be immortal, and my focus is once again changing. I am asking myself ‘what if something happens to me’, or one of my business partners? Will my family be able to maintain our lifestyle, will my children be able to finish their schooling? Will I actually get to realize the value I am building in my business? Am I really protected as well as I can be?
If something happened to me I want to know that my family will be able to get a reasonable amount for our business. I want them to have certainty, and not end up in an expensive dispute over what they will get, and when they will get it. Likewise, if something happens to one of my business partners, I don’t want to be supporting their family, as well as my own. I want to be able to buy them out and move on – perhaps find another person to replace them.
A lot of people think these issues come down to ‘expensive’ life insurance. But that’s not necessarily the case. The solution starts with a clear understanding of what might happen, and what you will do about it if it does. There are the obvious events, like disability, sickness and death. But there are also the less obvious, and more likely events, such as a disagreement about your business’ direction, retirement of your business partner, or your business partner going through a divorce.
Having spent some time thinking about what could happen – and what I can do to minimise the financial impact – I am now back focused on building value within my business. I feel comfortable in the knowledge that my family will benefit from that value when it matters. How confident are you?
Andrew Andreyev, Founder, Andreyev Lawyers
Call us today on 1300 654 590 or email us to put in place a comprehensive Business Succession Plan, and make sure your hard work is not wasted.
If you are planning on exiting your business, click here to find out how we can help you make this a smooth transition.
Get yourself prepared
The best way to kick-off the process of realising the value of your business is to get some knowledge about what’s involved.
We have prepared the following materials to get you started on the right track:
- 9 questions to ask yourself before you sell your business. This is a great article to get you started and put you in the best mindset for a successful sale.
- VideoPost: How to Buy or Sell a Business – ‘a tour de force’. This is an hour-long recorded seminar presented by Andrew on the nuts and blots of the process of selling your business. This is a must-see resource for anyone thinking seriously about selling their business.
- Are you really ready to sell your business? This article goes through a short ‘hit list’ of things you need to have in place prior to putting your business on the market.
- How should you deal with employees as part of a business sale? This article deals with the important, and technically difficult issue of how to deal with your employees as part of a business sale.
- 5 things you need to know about vendor finance. Sometimes you need to help the buyer of your business fund the purchase by providing them with a loan.
When you’re ready to get serious about realising the value within your business, call us on 1300 654 590 or email us and speak directly with one of our Great Lawyers.
The information contained in this post is current at the date of editing – 16 February 2024.
