Meaningful Data Speaks Volumes
I have recently had very meaningful data shared with me this week that caused me to pause and think. The number of businesses that fail every year. The number of start ups that never make it. The number of business owners who will want to leave their business but can’t.
This morning, I facilitated an exit planning briefing along with my business partner and our guest speaker, John H. Brown, president of Business Enterprise Incorporated (BEI). John started the session with some of these demographics.
- 1.2 million business owners have 10 or more employees today.
- 80% of business owners have no plan of how they will exit their business.
- We are experiencing a 82%+ drop in private equity funding for 3rd party acquisitions
Add to this the contrasting dilemma that while more than 85% of our businesses are family- and closely-held businesses, and create 90% of the job growth in GNP each year; less than 70% of family-owned businesses will make it to the second generation of their ownership.
This is such a shame. We know they are the engine of our economy. We know the deliverate services and action steps that will grow, manage and renew them, yet we choose to ignore them - especially in our current economic climate.
Exit planning is a critical path out of the abyss. Owners have options, and the opportunity to look from a new perspective. Leaving a company you have build with blood, sweat and tears is not the end, but the most meaningful series of leadership decisions that you will make in your career. The rest were all practice. Exit planning decisions are your living legacy.
Tags: Business Enterprise Incorporated, business ownership, closely-held business, demographics, economy, Exit Planning, family-owned business, Leadership, Succession Planning, talent war
| For Email Marketing you can trust