It was one of my most embarrassing moments. I climbed out of the water at the triathlon at West Lake and in front of all the spectators, I threw up on James Sexton's shoes. His kids cheered me on! I then moved on to the transition zone where I quickly got on my bike and away from the laughing crowd.
In business we have transitions too. This usually takes place after we sell a business, or we have a member of our team leaving us, or retiring.
Transitions give us time to get ready for the next stage and help those who are left to ensure that they have everything they need to continue running the marathon.
When business owners sell a business, there are a number of things that they need to ensure happen if they want to leave behind a functioning, viable business.
These include:
Identifying the perfect outcome - Understanding the goal and end point and making that clear to all involved can ensure that everybody is on the same page and establish measurement for the transition.
Decision making - Who is going to be making decisions during the transition period?
Transferring decision making and having clarity around who will do what.
Have accountability - Who is going to be responsible for what in the transition period? Once you have established what the ideal outcome that is expected, having a timeline with responsibilities attached is so important in the communication to members outside the transition team.
Your employees and stake holders need to be kept in the loop to enable them to understand the process and avoid unnecessary fear and worry.
Measure progress - Having a way to communicate and measure progress is essential in having an ideal transition.
Also owners who are selling and want to ensure the smooth transition need to take into account training of the new owners, staffing considerations, financial handover and upcoming issues that the new owners need to understand. While the new owners will have a strategy to grow the business, the outgoing owners need to be able to share the vision of what strategies are in place and the execution of those strategies.
Buying a business is like starting a marathon or triathlon, and hopefully the new owners are ready run the race.
Like any racers, there is always that starting jitters that go away when the buyers get stuck into the day to day operations.
Too much change too quickly can cause a thriving business to stumble and fall.
Keeping the pace at first is always a great idea when moving from the transition zone.
When an owner sells a business they need to understand that while they are leaving, their employees are left behind.
This can be a stressful situation. Outgoing owners need to realize and communicate their gratitude to that dedicated team.
Having sold a couple of businesses, I know some of the stresses that are involved, not only for the owners but for the employees left behind.
If you are thinking of selling, reach out and get help from professionals to ensure that everyone is taken care of.
Dave Fuller, MBA, business coach, wants to thank all his dedicated team who ran the marathon, and supported his race, he couldn't have done it without you! Dave can be reached at [email protected].
