A seminar on business succession was recently held by ACOFAS and SSA in Fort Meyers, Fla. The seminar featured speakers from a variety of industry organizations.
Bill Wade of Wade & Partners, also SSA’s executive director, spoke about the succession planning process. Wade stressed the importance of having a plan, when to start and deciding when you want to execute your exit strategy from the business.
Tom Marx and Paul Cooperstein from The Marx Group spoke on aspects of buying and selling a small business. The duo discussed the importance of positioning your company for a sale and how to make it appealing to prospective buyers. They also made suggestions regarding how you can add value to prospective buyers of your business by expanding to more locations, and made suggestions on methods of financing a buy-out.
Jim John of Northwood University’s Aftermarket Management Program also held a presentation regarding today’s workforce. John discussed the desires of the youth of today and what are they looking for in an employer and possible businesses for them to acquire.
Michael Holtzman informed the attendees about business succession with employee stock option plans (ESOP). Holtzman said these plans are excellent methods for business owners to sell their business to the employees of the company.
The topics of transitioning a business to family members or employees, selling to a buy-out group or a simple asset sale also were approached from several directions.
The seminar’s afternoon session allowed the attendees to meet with the speakers whose topic related best to the attendee’s personal business succession plan.
