Heroic Ownership

D. Scot Hunsaker

So, you’ve built a business. You’ve taken all the necessary risks and you have succeeded. The statistics said that your chances of failure were much higher than the chances for success. You’ve laid bare your heart and soul, lost a good bit of sleep, and spent more time than you can calculate pondering the issues you faced and solving them.

Hopefully you have built a great team along the way. You actually love these people. They have saddled up and ridden along with you through the good and the bad times. You’ve celebrated the victories and maybe wept a little when things didn’t work out as you had planned.

Things seem to be humming along for now, but what about 10 years from now or twenty? What’s your exit strategy? And, when you do exit, how do you take care of your employees that have been instrumental in helping you be successful, and do that in a smoothly and timely fashion?

Most entrepreneurs are so busy doing the day to day things that they haven’t even considered such a thing. But the truth is, your customers and employees need you to take the time to get it right. It’s vital, and yet the numbers tell a sobering story born out of procrastination, or perhaps fear:

66% of companies fold when the current leadership leaves.
80% of business owners intend to sell the firm to family members or employees, only 13% complete the transaction.
20% of business owners sell to a third party.
50% of owners expect they will hand down the business to family members, yet in reality this happens only 15% of the time.
30% of owners believe they will sell to their employees; this happens only 5% of the time.
20% of owners believe they will sell to competitors, or that outsiders will purchase the company.

These percentages reflect the real-world outcomes.

"Do not allow discomfort to dictate your behavior."

Thankfully, author and speaker Scot Hunsaker has answers drawn from his own experience of selling his company to his team of loyal employees. His new book, Heroic Ownership: Build Your Team. Plan Your Exit. Create Your Legacy (Booklogix, January, 2018) is both an inspirational and a how-to book penned by someone who has been there and understands the hurdles and misgivings that business owners can feel when they contemplate the end of what is, and consider what’s next.

“Knowledge is not power. Sharing knowledge is power.” Dwight Eisenhower

The successful transition of a business from an owner to his or her employees is a deliberate process that has to begin years before the implementation of the succession plan. Transparency and the sharing of all information, both financial and otherwise, are a critical part of the process, and it can’t start too soon.
“A great succession plan well implemented can set up the next generation of leaders to be even more successful and do greater things,” says Hunsaker. “Heroic owners who want that will have to be proactive and plan for it.”

Here, in the pages of this easy to read and compelling book, they’ll find out how to do just that.
To learn more, please visit http://www.ardentgroup.com/