When you run a small business you want to make sure that you are doing some form of succession planning. You need to make sure your legacy is in good hands.
The best way to make sure you are doing this is to have a plan in place for who is going to take over your business. In this guide, you will find out the importance of succession planning and get a step-by-step approach to how you can use it.
What you can expect in this article:
The Benefits of Succession Planning
The benefits of succession planning are many. It can ensure that your business stays afloat during hard times. Here’s a look at a few things that you need to do for the growth and continuity of your company.
Offsetting Your Risks
One of the main reasons why you want to have succession planning is because it wards off risks in your business. The departure of key personnel can cause a hole in your business overnight.
If you can’t fill this gap quickly your business will be like a dying patient who needs life support but cannot get it! Once you start haemorrhaging, there is a lot that can slide downhill, fast!
If there is illness, retirement, or any other unforeseen event you must have a plan in place to ensure that the business will continue smoothly. You can hire a company such as CJPI to help you mitigate your risks with succession planning. You don’t have to go it alone.
Nurture Talent
Another benefit that you get from succession planning is that you can identify those in your business who have high levels of talent and you can nurture it. When the time comes your business will be able to harness this.
Watering the talent that you have is the best way to make sure that it blooms and keeps your business afloat.
Financial Planning
Financial security for your business is a must. Planning for all those coins that get tossed in the bank account of your business is a must.
You want to make sure that you are always on point when it comes to your finances.
You don’t want to be too tight-fisted and not spend money on the development of your business. However, you don’t want to break the bank on unnecessary expenses.
It’s a delicate balance that requires you to think about future costs and your employees as well. Succession planning is a great way to help line up your coins.
How to Implement a Succession Plan
You can talk about a succession plan for days on end but unless you put some key practices in place you will never be able to have a concrete plan. Here are some of the main things you need to do to implement your succession plan.
The Roles of Individuals
You must make sure that the role of individuals in your business is identified. Everybody’s role is key to its success. Identify individuals who are ripe for or stepping into higher roles in your business hierarchy.
Look at Skills
Every business under the sun needs a specific set of skill sets. You need to think about the skills and competencies that are required for your business to succeed.
The competency of successors must match up with what you need. If it doesn’t and you feel that they are trainable by all means invest in their training and development.
Plumb Your Talent
When it comes to cultivating talent you want to make sure that a lot is going on in your pipeline.
There must be a firm trickle of new talent flowing through your business. This means that in addition to nursing the talent you do have, you always want to have people already in the pipeline marked for promotion. You’ll be able to turn on that tap and let that talent flow when the time comes for new roles to be filled.
Be Flexible
You already know how important it is to have a succession plan but you also need to be flexible as well. There are times when you need to be able to bend your own rules a little and go with the flow. Things change in business all the time and you have to be ready to adapt your succession plan for specific challenges that may arise.
You always want to make sure that when it comes to your business you are shooting for the stars. There’s no other way to do this but to make sure that the people who are on board your rocket ship know how to steer it towards the sky in your absence. This is why succession planning is the gateway to making sure your business can weather both the sunshine and the thunderstorms.
