Even though it may seem like a faraway prospect, succession is an important stage of your business that requires careful planning from day one.

When you’re ready to move on from your business, you need to know that it’s in safe hands – either continuing on as normal with the right team in place, or being sold to a profitable enterprise that will make a success of it.

As part of our business advisory services, we encourage all organisations that we work with to prepare a workforce plan as a map for the future. This quickly highlights gaps in succession plans and points to critical bottlenecks in capacity – many CEOs realise why they are so busy after this exercise!

Once the gaps are identified, we can help develop plans to address them. A key part of this is developing the capability of your people so you know that they can handle the business in a way you’ll be proud of.

Our EPIC programmes include coaching and access to our online personal development platform, so your teams can build their leadership and management skills in a way that suits their needs and time.

With a comprehensive succession plan, we find that many business owners have a shift in priorities – when the business is being run so well, there’s less incentive to sell. Don’t fall into the trap: this is probably the best time to sell, as your business will be more attractive and therefore at its most valuable!

If you decide to make a disposal, our experienced corporate finance team can provide invaluable advice and offer a complete cradle-to-grave service.

Family businesses

Did you know that two thirds of businesses in the UK are family businesses? In addition to the challenges of running a successful business, family involvement can add an extra layer of complexity, with the need to manage potential conflict between the business goals and longer-term family goals.

We run a specialist programme for families in business, which includes specific, proven tools to help you put a structure in place and processes to deal with those unique challenges, including succession.