CEO Prosperwell Financial, Wealth Advisor RJFS.
Every day we have to make choices—life is all about choices. The choices we make can have a small or large impact on our lives and businesses. Sometimes we think we cannot decide, that the choices we have are overwhelming and that we cannot figure out what to do. But not doing anything in and of itself is making a choice.
Making choices about our future can be the most difficult thing. Thinking about when we are no longer around is difficult. While just thinking about the future can feel overwhelming, owning a business and thinking about the future can be especially scary and overwhelming. When we feel overwhelmed, we often don’t make a decision.
However, if you don’t take the time now to set up your company for future success, it may not go where you want it to go. Not having a plan could dramatically hurt your business and your future.
Planning For Your Company’s Future
When you are no longer around, what is the legacy you want to leave? How do you want your company to exist when you are not there to run it? When you look at preparing your company for future success, it’s all about putting yourself out of the job.
This can be hard emotionally to process. It’s completely awkward thinking. We work years and years and years (for me, more than 20 years) to build a business, and then you take a few years to work yourself out of a job.
One of the best things I did to prepare was to create a one-, three- and five-year plan. But it wasn’t just a business plan; it was an organizational chart. It helped me get focused.
The organizational chart is a box chart where you have the owner/CEO on top and the managers below, and then the employees. The point is that you have a visual of what the company currently looks like and the positions you’ll need in the future, and who you need to hire. Names of current employees can be inserted, and then you will see the blank spaces and know who to hire or promote up and then hire.
Creating business plans and organizational charts for the coming years can help you to identify exactly what you want in the future and the legacy you want to leave. Then you can backtrack to today and figure out what you need to do in one, three and five years to make it all happen. Seeing these three charts laid out can help you get clear on the future.
Map out the employees you’ll need to hire in the next one to three to five years (or whatever your time frame is). You can also map out the resources and partnerships you’ll need to utilize and facilitate to make it all happen.
Taking Action On Your Plan
Once you have outlined your organizational charts and established an idea and a vision that your employees know and believe, you can take the next steps.
At this point, I suggest pulling in your CPA and your legal counsel. Set up a meeting with these advisors, along with your wealth advisor. This is the team that pulls it all together. Not only do you want to involve your advisors, but make sure to include your company’s leadership team every step of the way.
The goal is to establish a solid plan to help yourself, to help your employees, and to help others. I know it may be tough to think about when you are no longer around, but preparing for the future is an important part of your financial plan.
Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?
Read the full article here
