Here we are again at the start of a New Year. It’s often a time when we reassess how we are doing in life and set ourselves new aspirations and targets. Many of us have found a new urgency to carry out this self-audit as the pandemic shifts our priorities and changes the opportunities on offer in the world.

Whether or not you choose to carry out such a regroup for yourself personally, what might it look like if you were to do it for your business?

Here are some questions to get you thinking:

  • What are your longer-term aspirations for your business and for yourself? Do you want to ‘step back’ in a few years’ time? When would you like to do this?
  • Would you consider selling your business at that time? Is your primary objective to release cash so that you can do other things, or are there other drivers dictating what you hope your business will look like after you’ve moved on?
  • If so, what is your primary motivator? Do you want to pass the business on to your employees in some way? Do you want to pass on a legacy that is precious to you? Developing new leaders, giving people development opportunities, positively impacting the environment or the community – all examples of areas which may guide your thinking.

Whatever you decide you’d like to do at that, maybe distant, point in the future, it will take some planning. Typically, busy business owners tend to leave the decision rather late. Preparing your business for a profitable sale takes time – a minimum of 2-3 years if you want to sell it as a going concern and preserve the jobs of your employees. It takes a similar length of time to prepare to pass the business on to a new management team via a buyout, or to your employees via an employee ownership scheme.

What about that legacy?

How is that coming along? A reputation for developing people, contributing to the community, or saving the environment isn’t created overnight. In what form does that aspiration exist today? If you left your business tomorrow, who would pick up leadership after you – and how strong is your successors’ commitment to what is currently your vision?

It all boils down to the question, ‘how fit and healthy is your business?’ in the context of what the future will demand of it. It, like you, has just undergone one of the most testing periods in its existence, and if you are reading this, I’d hazard a guess that right now it has at least survived so far. Well done indeed.

So is it time for a health check? A thorough review to ensure that your business is fit, not just for survival – you’ve proved that it is – but to achieve those inspiring objectives that you may have had to put on the back burner in the last couple of years?

If you’d like to rediscover your vision for your own and your business’s future, let’s talk about how we can help you to:

  • Create great teams of people who know where your organisation is going and are lit up about playing their part in getting there.
  • Communicate so your teams do what is needed willingly and without having to be chased all the time.
  • Build a brilliant, sustainable organisation that functions as smoothly and organically as a beehive.

Call now on 01865 881056, or email me on km@leaderslab.co.uk to set up a conversation.

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