Is your business sustainable?

Is your family business sustainable? From the moment you start or buy the business, you need to look at your eventual exit strategy.

That may be some 20 years later, but the day will come when you will want to have other interests or your health will not allow you to continue. The term “sustainable” when used in this context refers to the company’s ability to survive without you. While you may be the “captain of the ship”, your business must have enough experienced and well-qualified people who can run that business well.

It is a very logical process. A potential buyer for your business will be interested in buying the business if it can do well without you. If the business can’t function without you, then the buyer is really buying from you, which amounts to no exit strategy.

How to create a business that is sustainable? It is more than just hiring qualified staff, which can be difficult to do at first. While you initially do most of the work, eventually you need to be the leader.

As such, you’ll need to develop your product, determine your target market, and raise money in case your business needs seed capital that you don’t have. You will also have to learn to delegate. Over time, you must become the one who chooses the direction of the company. This also means that you do not have to make all the decisions and you will have to hold others accountable for the results.

It will be you who needs to establish systems within the company. He will share the credit and limelight with his team as he will be the team builder for his management team, spending more time on the “big picture” as he needs to become the visionary for the company over time.

Hiring a qualified team will allow you to focus your efforts on the “big picture.”

Hiring qualified people is not the only thing you need to do to build your team. As a leader, you must lead the team to define the vision and mission of the company. You need to create a methodology for the team to communicate with each other within the company.

That also means you’ll have to weed out those in the company who don’t fit in attitude or skill set.

With that team in place, he has created options for the future. For example, if you have children who are involved in the business, gifting them stock in your business can be part of your estate planning. Or your team may have invested in your business and want to buy it out over time. Your entire management team, depending on your financial circumstances, may want to buy you out.

Building a sustainable family business creates options for you and your family.