Ownership Transition
Pros and Cons to Keeping Your Business in the Family
Family businesses play an integral role in Canada’s economy. According to the Globe and Mail, 80% of all Canadian businesses are owned by families, though only 30% last into a second generation. Deciding whether to keep a business in the family when the owner retires, and navigating the potentially thorny issue of who to leave it to, can require some careful planning and consideration of what’s best for you, your family and the business.
Start Planning Early for Business Succession
It can be difficult to think about the end of your business’s life span when you’re still working to get it off the ground. Succession planning is an often overlooked – though extremely important – aspect of most business plans: barely a third of business owners have a formalized succession plan. This can mean big problems when it comes time to hand off your business to someone else.
Ready to sell: Building value in your business
What does a buyer want from your business? Transferable assets.
Life after your business
Whether you sell your business to a buyer or transition it to family, you should start making financial plans to support your lifestyle after business ownership long before the sale is concluded.
Negotiating with a business buyer
Negotiating a deal to sell your business is very exciting. Naturally, it can also be very stressful. Consider these suggestions to help guide you through the buy/sell negotiation process.
Removing yourself from your business
While you are an asset to your business now, you may actually be a liability to a buyer.
Signs it’s time to sell your business
The best time to sell a business is different for each entrepreneur.
Sell your business to family, or strangers? Decide soon
There will come a day when you’ll pass your business to a buyer. That day may be near or it may be far.
Avoiding workplace conflict in ownership transition
Preparing a business for sale or transition of management can be stressful, and not just for the owner. Unless the transition process is carefully managed, your employees may become worried about their positions within the company and their future prospects.
Ownership transition and your practice
When starting a business or practice, an entrepreneur’s primary focus will be in getting the enterprise off the ground. As the business matures, you may begin to think about retirement and an exit strategy. For a professional practice, where the practitioner is the brand, this can be a bigger challenge.
Selling Your Business: Negotiating The Deal - Video 4 of 4
In the fourth of our four-part video series on Selling Your Business, small business expert Roger Pierce takes you step-by-step through negotiating the sale of your business, including the selling memorandum, letter of intent, due diligence and closing the deal.
Selling Your Business: Building Value - Video 2 of 4
In the second of our four-part video series on Selling Your Business, small business expert Roger Pierce explains how to build transferable value in your business so you will get top dollar when you sell.
Selling Your Business: Start With a Plan - Video 1 of 4
In the first of our four-part video series on Selling Your Business, small business expert Nadia Baboo outlines how to create your ownership transition plan, and explains the importance of a standardized business system.
Selling Your Business: Preparing for a Buyer - Video 3 of 4
In the third of our four-part video series on Selling Your Business, small business expert Roger Pierce discusses how your business profits determine the price of your business, and explains how to choose between a business broker or a mergers and acquisition firm.
Growing your business valuation
The recorded version of the ownership transition webinar that went live on February 23rd at 2pm. This webinar will highlight how to get the best price for your business. Roger Pierce, co-founder of BizLaunch and small business expert, and David Wilton, Director of Small Business Banking at Scotiabank, presented valuable insights on selling your business.
Scotiabank Ownership Transition Tool
This interactive tool will help you consider the key elements of a business ownership transition. It provides a planning framework that encouragess you to engage the right advisors at the right time to ensure a success entry into your next stage of life.
Launch a Long Term Incentive plan for managers
You need to prove to a buyer that you have a management team who can run the business after you’re gone. What’s more, you need to show that the management team is locked into staying with your company after acquisition.
The Succession Planning Checklist
Why You Need a Business Succession Plan
A recent CFIB survey points to a large wave of business turnover in the next five to 10 years. However, the study also revealed that only 10% of business owners have a written succession plan in place. Is your business prepared?
Three Secrets to Setting Up an Advisory Board
An advisory board can be a great asset in building a sellable company. Pick advisers who have been involved in business transactions before, and they will guide you through the process, point out what drags down your valuation and challenge you to build something sellable.
The most important number in an offer to buy your business
When you get an offer to buy your company, the term sheet will outline what the buyer is willing to pay for your business. Most entrepreneurs fixate on the purchase price and the multiple of earnings used to calculate it.
There is a second number in most term sheets that is almost as important as the purchase price: the working capital calculation.
Succession Planning and Your Business
Each month, The Pulse provides market research insights gained by polling small business customers like you.
Our latest survey finds that a significant number of small business owners* plan to retire over the next 10 years, including a number of those in the start-up stage of their business.
Small Business Slow to Prepare for Succession
Each month, The Pulse provides market research insights gained by polling* small business customers like you.
In this issue of The Pulse, we look at how prepared small business customers are for succession. This is an important issue, as 34% of small business customers plan to retire in the next 10 years and almost 60% expect to retire within 20 years.
RSPs Still Important to Small Business Owners
Each month, The Pulse provides market research insights gained by polling small business customers like you.
Our latest survey finds that small business owners* understand the importance of contributing to a registered Retirement Savings Plan (RSP). Fifty-seven per cent of small business owners contribute to their RSPs on an annual basis (another seven per cent contribute to their plans but not every year).
Transfering your business upon retirement
Each month, The Pulse provides market research insights gained by polling* small business customers like you. In this issue of The Pulse, we look at what business owners plan to do with their businesses when they retire.
8 Steps for creating a sellable business: Step 2 - Create a positive Cashflow
Step 2 of 8 steps for creating a sellable service business
By John Warrillow
Next, create a positive cash flow cycle by charging up front for your Standard Service Offering. This will be possible if you branded your offering properly. Depending on your service, you may not be able to charge for the entire amount in advance, but you can try. You’ll be surprised at how many clients agree. It’s not unheard of to have clients pay $100,000 or more up front for a Standard Service Offering that is delivered over a year. If you charge up front, you will create a positive cash flow cycle, which will give you the cash you need to operate without diluting yourself with other shareholders.
Is your name on the door?
By John Warrillow
Some business owners mistakenly believe having their family name in the company name will make it impossible for them to sell their business to an outsider. In fact, some of the world’s most valuable companies have their founder’s family name right there in the company name:
Is your business prepared for succession?
Is your business prepared for succession?
Business succession planning is about taking control of your eventual exit from the business and thinking about the next stage of your life. For entrepreneurs who plan to rely on their business as a primary source of retirement income, succession planning is essential.
The succession planning process involves exploring all of your options in order to protect your investment in your business. You’ll also want to ensure its future stability, satisfy stakeholders (family members, employees, and partners), select a successor, and set a timetable for transfer of ownership. Here are seven steps to successful succession planning.
Business Valuation: What's Your Firm Worth
Roger Pierce
Entrepreneurship Expert at BizLaunch.ca
If it was just about making money today, you would likely be an employee. But as a professional in your own firm, it’s also about the future. You are creating value and building equity to be cashed in when you retire or leave for a new opportunity. Take the time to understand how professional firms are valuated, so that you can continually increase and leverage the value of your firm.
8 Steps for creating a sellable service business
By John Warrillow
There are many reasons for wanting to create a sellable business. You may want to retire, travel, cash out, or just sleep well at night knowing you could sell your business. Regardless of your reasons, you need to ensure you have a sellable business. Unfortunately, just 1 out of 100 Canadian business owners are successful in selling their company each year.
