Insight
Most succession plans begin too late
The conversation starts when health, a child, or a buyer forces it. By then the options have already narrowed.
The founder knows the business. The customers know the founder. The suppliers call the founder. The decisions live in the founder's head. Then one day, someone has to take over.
That day is rarely chosen. It is usually imposed: illness, a family dispute, a sudden offer, or simply exhaustion.
A founder's exit should be designed before it becomes an emergency. Designed, in this sense, does not mean sold. It means the business can continue if the person who built it steps back.
Three years of quiet work, second-line leadership, documented relationships, cleaner numbers, changes what is possible. Three weeks of panic does not.
If you are thinking about what happens next, you are already late enough to start. You are not too late to do it well.