Have your started planning?
I had a client tell me recently “I don’t ever see myself retiring.” So my next question was what kind of work do you want to be doing in five years? He quickly told me he wanted to be able to keep pulse on his business finances, help develop systems, and make sure the business was growing on both the client and employee side. That answer instantly lined up with the vision we had built for his vision, and it was a confirmation that we were on the right track with our work together. His clarity on that question took time for him to realize, he wasn’t always so sure what kind of work he wanted to do, or whether or not he’d continue to work into his 70’s and beyond. He hadn’t taken the time to plan what he was going to do, until he started to consider that five-year question.
This isn’t the case for everyone – there are plenty of people who want to move into retirement sooner rather than later, selling their business or passing it along to family is what fits best in their picture. So we build a plan for that – set up business systems that don’t rely on the owner, thinking about how to transfer roles and responsibilities to the staff and new owners. No matter what the owner wants to accomplish we can build a plan for it. And that is the point. As a business owner your business should support you in the life that you want to live.
The client in my first example has a clear picture of what he wants to do and how he wants to do it over the next few years, and it allows us to focus our time and energy in building him the business that allows him to do just that. Everything we decide to do gets measured against the question “Does this move you closer to your vision?” if it does then the decision is simple, if it doesn’t then we have to pause and evaluate the decision against those criteria. It’s almost binary – yes or no – does this move you closer to where you want to be?
Now plenty of people change their mind along the way, deciding they’d like to stay on working for a while longer – or sometimes the decision to leave is made for them by circumstances outside their control. Having a plan and a goal that we’re working toward makes those kind of changes easier to manage. It’s much easier to pivot and sell a business if it’s required if we’re already building a company that doesn’t rely on the owner to operate it successfully. Lots of people are building a business as their retirement plan, but don’t realize they aren’t maximizing the value of their business until it’s too late to do anything about it. This kind of planning and foresight is invaluable, because you don’t want to find out it’s too late when you’re forced to walk away from the business for whatever reason
A lack of a plan and a vision for the business filters through every aspect of the owner’s work, and it shows up for the staff as well. Often without realizing it the owner’s lack of focus has a negative impact on the daily operations of the business, and instead of making progress toward a goal the business is simply treading water, or worse. Having a clear vision and a plan for how those items are going to be achieved is crucial, and it’s some of the owner’s most important work.
As a business owner you should be focused on the future while managing the present and learning from the past. So I go back to my original question – where are you going to be in five years?
Do you need help answering that question? Schedule a Free Coaching Session today.
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