Successful business owners want two things from their succession or exit journey:
- Nail the financial reward
- Walk away confident you did the right thing for yourself, your people, and the enterprise
How do you ensure your post-transition future is as prolific as your past?
A daunting statistic stands in the way: 80% of business owners regret their exit within two years of the transaction.
Regrets come from lack of clarity in three essential areas:
- Internal conflict: lack of clarity about what you want personally
- Latent, often unidentified discord with partners
- Conflicting wants and needs of family members inside and outside of the business
Your purpose stays with you: life after the business
There’s a new brand of coaching that warns successful business owners to find their post-business purpose before they exit the business. As fellow entrepreneurs, we at The Founders Group find this confusing.
Purpose is simply your method for making things happen. All these years of growing a business, you’ve drenched the operating entity in your purpose. It’s who you are and how you show up regardless of what your Midas Touch is influencing. Life after the business is a reaffirmation of the purpose you already know. Together, we cultivate your same chess pieces on this new game board – with all the freedom and passion that’s fueled your outcomes to date.
Navigating Succession and Conflict: Guiding Owners in Succession Conflict
to Resolution and a Path Forward.
Conflict isn’t always inflammatory, it simply means there’s disparity
The word conflict has a negative charge yet entrepreneurial companies deal with conflict all the time. Often, it’s a simple difference in perspective, or a disagreement about how to get from A to Z.
From our 25 years of experience, we’ve observed that post-transition fulfillment is more likely to be found in subtleties of the heart than a big number, a bold transaction, or a miraculous unexpected offer. A miracle isn’t a miracle if it isn’t the one you want.
Our model converts seemingly disparate vantage points to a harmonious outcome for you, your partners, and your family.
Conflict is tucked into the emotions and callouses of a decades-long journey…
- Accumulated crunchiness from years of acquiescing to keep the peace
- Differences of opinion with fellow owners, followed by compromise
- Differences in perspective among family members, followed by sacrifice
- Outright partner discord layered over underlying love, connection, and history together
- Disparate wants and needs: yours, your partners, your family
- Difference of opinion about if, how, and when to transition
- Lack of consensus about what defines a successful outcome: relationally and financially
- Seasons of life: “I’m a die-with-my-boots-on entrepreneur”
- Seasons of growth: “I have to slow down and have a life”
- Conflict of the heart: who will I be without the business? Who do I want to be?
- Conflict in my DNA: “All I’ve ever done is lead. What will I lead next?”
- Generational conflict: rising generation ready to take the reins; founding generation has well-earned battle scars of control
Rewards of pre-exit alignment
- Maximize your gross and net financial potential
- Protect and enhance your important relationships throughout and after the transition
- Beat the statistics and achieve a regret-free outcome
When you begin to contemplate the next chapter of a business you’ve grown for decades, there’s an abundance of circulating thoughts, emotions, desires, and concerns about relational and financial outcomes. Every party to the potential transition has their own list: yours, your partners’, your family in the business and outside of the business. You’re exhausted by it all and you just want to soldier on toward the finish line.
And still…
You’ve allocated a life’s work to meeting everyone else’s expectations, most often exceeding them. We believe you deserve the time, space, and a facilitated process to uncover your own expectations for what’s next. Learn More Here
Nuance
- Subtle difference in perspective or priority
- Variations that add depth or complexity
- Essential, yet not immediately obvious
Resolution is simpler than you think
Families who value our process want to feel joy in their hearts when their head hits the pillow – the evening of a transaction and every night after. The business owners who are drawn to our process have a deep desire to do well in their business and family relationships.
Meanwhile, the entrepreneurial gene has an aversion to being wrong. Would you rather be a little wrong in the present or clutch regret for the rest of your days? We believe you can be mad at something and still love the person. Business owners make mistakes all the time. Prevailing is a breed trait. If we can give each other the grace of an error, we can find alignment about what matters most: the composite outcome of your life’s work.