How Do You Transition Your Family Business Like They Do It In The NFL?

In This Episode

A common focus for our business coaching is helping owners of small companies pull together and executed a succession or transition plan for their business to hand things off to the next generation. We have found that the majority of small business owners would like to eventually transition the business to someone else in their family (e.g. their kids). Unfortunately most don’t have plans in place to make this happen.

We touched on a couple of recent articles citing examples of NFL teams and the family drama that can ensue when looking to transition ownership from one generation to the next. While these transitions are often played out in a more public forum, the situations and challenges are no different from what is faced by smaller companies that aren’t under the public spot light of being a professional sports franchise. Things like warring siblings, second or third spouses, and ego-filled founders, are as commonplace on Main Street as they are in the office of NFL ownership.

In tonight’s show we shared some stories of clients we have helped through this process and the lessons that applied to them as well as these NFL owners. Some of these nuggets might appear to be common sense, but once the veil of family gets pulled over the situation, things can often get more cloudy vs. clear when it comes to transitions. Enjoy the show!