A Kent State University program is helping business owners retire by providing them succession plans to ease the transition in their companies.
Recently featured in The Business Journal Daily, the Ohio Employee Ownership Center was created in 1995 to help business owners understand where to begin with succession plans.
“Statistics show only about 25% of business owners have a succession plan,” Michael Palmieri, the project coordinator at the center, told the journal. “Yet business owners are growing older and baby boomers own nearly half of small businesses.”
The center provides a manual to the business owners which contains multiple options such as selling the business, succession to a family member, developing a group of successors from inside the organization or employee ownership.
Chris Cooper, director of the center, suggests that a management succession plan requires having a strong team in place. Even if the business owner just wants to step back, take a vacation or have peace of mind should something unfortunate happen. “We always encourage business owners to think of succession planning as part of their business planning,” Cooper told the journal. “So if you are developing any type of strategic plan for your business, how you’re going to exit that business should be a part of that.”
To view The Business Journal Daily article, visit https://businessjournaldaily.com/article/ksu-program-helps-owners-plan-for-transitions/