It is time to say it like it is.
Family Business Succession doesn’t need to be so difficult and so expensive.
Here is the truth.
Most of the help for family business succession is time-intensive, extremely costly, painful, confusing, and sometimes terribly ineffective, causing more harm than good.
If your family business has fewer than 500 employees
and you and your family members can:
sit around a table and talk
are willing to be vulnerable
want to learn and grow
see succession coming in the next 10 years
You might be able to do a large part of your succession planning on your own.
And you do NOT need:
multi-hundreds of thousands of dollars of family business advising
hours and dollars spent in one-on-one conversations with your attorney, financial advisor, and/or family business advisor
to take years to define your values or mission or family charter
customized solutions
one of a kind agendas
to learn a whole bunch of big words and complicated theories
fancy advisors who wear suits (unless you really like the person in the suit)
Because I’m tired of family business solutions for small businesses being over priced, over customized, over stuffed with theory, and full of highfalutin mumbo jumbo I have created simple resources to help you run a healthy and successful family business for generations.
To be successful with these tools you will need to:
understand a few, simple concepts
make a handful of very important decisions
meet regularly
be willing to say the hard things
have a sense of humor
If you can’t do that, I can’t help you.
Here are the super simple things I have for you. You can pay as little as zero dollars and as much as $75,000. You pick.
Every other week, I host the free Family Business Office Hour. From 1-2pm central time on Mondays, you can ask as many questions as you want about how to run a healthy family business for generations. Easy peasy, lemon squeasy.
Family Business Office Hour
If you want more, read the book.
This book takes you step-by-step, through six important questions to answer when it is time to pass your family business to the next generation.
This guide has short concepts, examples of other family businesses who used this method and exercises to help you get started with family business succession.
Published since 2019, it has also helped many family businesses get organized about their family business ownership, well before succession begins.
This $20 book includes space to write your own thoughts before you sit down with your fellow family business owners.
If you want more
Take my course.
This is a great add-on to the Start Here book. For $139 you get life-time access to this course (including all additions I make over time).
This course describes what a healthy family business looks like, including who the leaders are, what fair looks like, ground rules, meetings, and who makes which decisions. When paired with the Start Here book, you have what you need to build a great family business and get started with succession
I provide group coaching to help you and your fellow family business owners get on track and stay on track. We cover all of the topics covered in the book and the course.
If you’re able to hold yourselves accountable to 12 meetings a year, you don’t need this resource.
Before you spend $1 I want to be sure this is right for you. The cost for this experience is $2000 every 90 days and includes a full-day of coaching for you and your fellow owners. You will be coached by Sara and participate with other family businesses on the same day.
Maybe you want more.
If you still want more.
I work one-on-one with a limited number of family businesses each year. Reach out and let’s talk. Be warned though, I’m going to encourage you to do this work using the other methods first. Other family businesses have done this, I think you can too.
If we work together, you pay me by the day. This will cost between $40,000 and $75,000 per year. I typically work with my clients for 1-2 years.