THREE RETIREMENT STRATEGIES

In my work with business owners, I encounter three strategies for dealing with ‘work-life transitions’ – often called retirement.



The first strategy is to ignore the problem and just keep on working – even after they have lost their ‘edge,’ their passion and their energy. They don’t have an alternate lifestyle to move into so they just keep doing the only thing they know. They stay too long and suck the life out of their business, significantly reducing the value of their equity in the process.


Then, one day, they’ve ‘had it.’ Without much prior planning, they quit – maybe because of poor health or because the business is failing and is no longer sustainable or they just ‘burnout.’ They have no idea what they will do next or what will happen with their business. They sell the business when they have to, instead of when the want to, maybe for ‘pennies on the dollar.’ And the life they are left with is empty, sterile, and directionless. They struggle between meaningless activity and boredom.


There is a second, special kind of people who successfully keep on working: artists, writers, some attorneys and others who work independently, without an organization to support them. Their value is their personal work, not the organization they lead. ‘Living their passion,’ they do it as long as they can, often into their 80s and 90s. For example, Peter Drucker, the prolific management writer (over 30 books) and consultant remained active, albeit in a somewhat diminished role until he died at age 95 in 2005. For him, his work and his passion were one in the same – to work is to live.


The third group follows a different strategy. They plan ahead, thinking ‘transition’ long before the time when they will leave the business. Even while still actively working, they regularly step back from the day to day operation of their business and begin to plan for the next phase of their life. Ultimately, they leave on their own terms.


This third strategy could involve starting a new business, take a new role in their original company or working somewhere else. Or they might work with a cause for which they have a great passion. This life of service gives them great pleasure and satisfaction -– giving them ‘psychic income’ while providing a much needed service. And they have time for personal/family pursuits.


There are several of keys to planning a successful departure from the business:

• Choosing the ‘next phase’ of their life,
• Building a sustainable, saleable business,
• Deciding whether to sell internally, to partners, associates and/or family members, or externally to an outside buyer,
• Fully withdrawing their investment before giving up control.

This whole range of decisions depends upon the owner's personal decision to ‘move on’ with their life and the personal transition strategy he or she develops to make the move. This personal decision becomes the basis for all subsequent decisions.


All this takes time – often several years. So it’s important to start early. Waiting too long can severely limit a person’s options both for himself and for the business.


The moral? Start thinking about the next phase of your life and regularly block out time to make choices about how you will create a meaningful, fulfilling life after your work/life transition.


What is your life strategy? What thought have you given to your future? What will be the next phase of your life – after you transition out of your business? What are you planning for the future of your company after you move on? When is that last time you took time to give this serious consideration? What are you going to take some more time to do it again?


I work with business owners who are contemplating retirement. I can help you. Contact me to explore your options and develop a plan for your future. Call me by April 30 and our first conversation is complimentary.

Retirement Challenges Every Business Owner Must Face

Dilemma: A situation involving a choice between equally unsatisfactory alternatives.

Sooner or later, all business owners will face a time when they need to make decisions about their future – specifically their retirement. They love what they are doing but they recognize that ‘things are changing’ and they have to change, too. They want to stay but know they must step aside. They face two dilemmas.

One dilemma is the choice between staying with the business because they love what they are doing versus holding on for too long and stifling the company’s future, dragging it down, and burning up their personal net worth (retirement income) in the process.

Another dilemma is the choice between selling internally – to family, partners, staff – expecting to leave a legacy versus selling to an outside buyer, generating more retirement income but giving up hope for having an impact on the future of the company.

Resolving both dilemmas depends upon the selling owner making strategic decisions well in advance of the time when he or she must begin execution.

The issues are both personal and business related but the beginning point is personal. The seller’s personal decisions will provide the framework for the business decisions that will follow.

Both dilemmas are difficult to resolve unless the owner is willing to make and execute choices - to look forward, to create a new life that is as equally attractive and potentially satisfying as running the business. I call that “Building a boat to step onto before walking off the dock.”

Over the next several articles, we will look into these two dilemmas and explore strategies for business owners to resolve them – to make their “Grand Transition” into the “Third Phase” of their life.

RETIREMENT PLANNING FOR BUSINESS OWNERS

Next Tuesday March 2, Pete Wendel will be the featured speaker at the Niagara University Family Business monthly breakfast. His subject is "Business Owners - Are you prepared to retire?"
In this session he'll explore factors to consider in preparing yourself and your business for a successful transition into the 'Third Phase' of your life.
Successful transition is a long term process. Questions covered will include: Have you planned a meaningful life after work? Will your business continue? Will you be prepared financially?
.
There are a limited number of openings available for guests. To register go to www.niagara.edu/fbc. There is no charge.

BRETT FAVRE AND YOU - WHAT'S NEXT?

Thoughts about Planning your Exit Strategy

A few years ago, Brett Favre retired as the long time quarterback for the Green Bay Packers NFL football team. Apparently he wasn’t ‘prepared’ for retirement because a few months later he signed with the New York Jets. This season he joined the Minnesota Vikings and led them to the conference championship game.

When Favre went through his “I’m retired, I’m not retired” turnaround, I wrote about it, drawing an analogy between him and lots of business owners contemplating retirement. Now, at forty – he’s the oldest quarterback in football - he will soon face the same situation once again. It’s only a matter of time before he retires, voluntarily or otherwise.

You, a business owner, will someday be facing the same challenge. You’ll be asking similar questions like “How will I retire?” “When is the right time?” What will I do with the rest of my life?” And others like “What do I do with my business?” “How do I get my money out?”

Unlike Farve, whose focus is primarily personal, yours must be in three areas: Financial, Business and Personal.

One presumes that Favre is set financially. With the help of your financial and legal advisors, you are addressing this. (You are, aren’t you!?)

From a business standpoint, the management of the football team has planned for the team’s continuity. Indentifying and developing their next quarterback, along with players for other positions, is one of their responsibilities. Continuity of the team is not part of Favre’s MO.

Business continuity is a challenge you and every business owner must address to assure that you can withdraw your investment from your business to your personal investment portfolio. Whether you sell internally, to your partners, family and/or staff, or externally, to outside buyers, you need to develop an exit strategy. That strategy will determine your transition plans. To successfully implement your plans it’s important to start early. It’s a long term process.

Probably the biggest challenge, whether to Favre or to you, is the personal side. Favre is ‘only forty,’ probably with more than half his life ahead of him. But he may have no choice about when he retires – the team management may make that decision for him.

You can expect a life after ‘retirement’ of twenty years – maybe more. You have control over your timing. It’s your business. But if you hold on too long you may see your business – what you worked so hard to build – wither away, diluting your investment as it goes.

In both instances, Favre and you, the key is to rethink ‘retirement.’ It’s not the end. It’s a ‘transition’ from one life style to another. I hope that Favre, after his retirement dilemma of a few years ago, spent some productive time building his ‘new life after football’ so that he has something to move into, to look forward to. I call this “Building a boat to step into when you walk of the dock.”

What about you? It’s important to start early making personal and business decisions that weave together financial, business and personal factors to create a transition that assures a meaningful, fulfilling life, provides adequate income to live it and, if you want it, leaves a successful, ongoing business as your legacy.

It’s never too early to start planning your transition. How about today?

EVALUATING YOUR POTENTIAL SUCCESSORS

A key factor in planning for your retirement (what I call your transition) is being confident that the people who will succeed you have the 'timber' (aka the ability, passion, knowledge etc.) to lead your company into the future.

Choosing and developing them is one of your challenges. It's an obligation you have to your partners, shareholders and other staff members.

If you fail, all the rest of your work in building a sustainable organization will have been wasted. You will have failed in leaving your legacy.

Many leaders and owners pick their potential successors based on erroneous assumptions about 'What it takes' to be a leader. They incorrectly assume that loyalty, longevity, good technical competence, being a family member, etc. are the best criteria to use.

That's what it takes to be a good 'Number two' - a good 'doer.' That MAY qualify then to be good managers - this is not what it takes to be a leader. There are relativly few people who can lead.

What's the difference between a good manager and a good leader? A recent article in the Wall Street Journal is a good reference.

You may have lots of good managers in your company. And you'll be lucky - or brilliant - if you have surrounded youself with several people who have leadership potential - the qualifications to lead the company after you step aside.

THE BOTTOM LINE; take a long, hard look at the people around you.

Identify those who have leadership potential and focus on grooming them. If you don't have what you need, start searching - outside your company NOW. And stop wasting your time trying to make your good managers into mediocre leaders!

What do you owe your children?

This is question every parent has faced - especially parents who own their own business.

Do you owe them a job in the business? Do you owe them guaranteed income?

When our kids were growing up Janie, my wife and their Mom, had a phrase that became our guide: "Every pot has to set on its own bottom." In other words, our goal was teach them to be self-suffcient - to discover what their life passion was and to support them in their quest to achieve it.

In other words, the goal was to help them identify what really mattered to them and not expect them to live out some dream we may have had for them. Although I was an engineer, there was no need for them to become engineers - unless that was what they wanted to be. They didn't have to move back to Lockport, where we live - unless they wanted to. They didn't have to come back to the business - unless they wanted to. (None became engineers, none moved back home and none joined the business. That was OK for us.)

We are pleased for their personal successes - each in their own way.


Every parent needs to ask themselves what they owe their kids. This seems to be a key question for business owners when they think about their children and their business. Somehow there seems to be an unspoked assumption that the best thing for at least one of the kids is to come into the business. The business owner may see that as the step to leaving their legacy. The child may see this as a easy step to take without any deep thought about what really matters to them, what they want to accomplish with their lives. It may or may not be the best move - for the owner, for the child (who is now an adult) or the business.

Which brings me to the question "What do you owe your children?"

First, let me offer some ideas about what you don't owe them. You don't owe them a job. You don't own them a steady income. Your don't need to decide their life purpose.

You do owe them love and support while they are educating themselves - only partial if that's all you can afford. You owe them nuturing while they are growing up. You owe them a lasting set of values that will enable them to live a successful, caring life that enhances our culture.

Then you owe them the opportunity to develop self discipline and self suffciency. You owe them respect for who they are - even though it may not be what you had hoped of them.

Last, but not least, you owe them the freedom to follow their own path and to grow into supportive, caring individuals who offer the same to those around them.

After they have sorted this all out and developed clarity about their self identity, if they decide they want to join your business, the odds are that you'll have a great staff member with potential to be a future leader!

Three Important Questions Before Retirement

I've been thinking a lot about business owners considering retirement who will be selling their business. There are, to me, three key questions that every business owner needs to address for their retirement to be successful:

1. Will I have the money I need to support the life I want to live after I retire? That involves money I have saved and invested, my retirement funds and the proceeds from the sale of my interest in the business.


2. Have I built a strong sustainable company that will continue after I move on? Have I developed the people with the passion and the competence to lead the business and hold to the values I instilled?


3. Have I chosen a meaningful life after work that I will move into? I know that successful retirement is not an ending, It's a transition into a different 'venue' - one that will give me satisfaction because I am doing something I love to do. To be successful I need to prepare for the 'Third Phase' of my life.

People who have answered these questions in a way that matches their aspirations can move on knowing that they can make a successful transition and leave a successful business as their legacy.Those who haven't are in danger of holding on too long and destroying the very business they spent their life to create.

What about you? Are your prepared for retirement? If you are in your late fifties or early sixties think long and hard about these questions as if your life depended on it. Because it does!

DISCOVERING COMMON GROUND

Yesterday, I made a presentation on business succession planning at the Niagara EXPO and the conversation with the group was facinating!

The conversation focused on the three elements of successful succession: Financial, Organizational and Personal transition. My beginning mindset was on business leaders and business owners contemplating retirement.

But the majority of people in the room were not business leaders or business owners! They were middle managers and even a couple of folks just out of college who were a long ways from retirement. So I 'fine tuned' the presentation to fit their interests and backgounds.

I had a similar experience a few weeks ago when I presented to a group of financial planners. I started talking about business owners and discovered that many in the room had shifted their 'take' on the presentation to their personal situations!

The neat thing about both experiences was that the three part focus: financial, organization and personal resonated with both groups! I discovered that no matter where a person is in their life, when they step back to gain a perspective, they have concerns/interests in all three areas.

They discover that they need to think about where they are and where they want to go - and then make 'life adjustments' to get themselves on track to live a live that will be rewarding and fulfilling to them. They must live their lives by their standards and values, not someone else's.

So I'll keep my three part focus but expand my perspective to a wider range of people including business leaders and owners and others, too.