Have you ever told yourself that anything in your life is constant, permanent or indefinitely consistent? No? Good. Because realistically why kid ourselves?
Without making the obvious reference to the times here, I’ll try to take it to another, more constant metaphor. Extreme sports.
If you’ve ever been into extreme sports, you’d see that contingencies and backup plans are put into motion for a spectacle that lasts a couple of hours – JUST in case something goes wrong.
Take car racing. You know the drivers are extensively trained, expertise flying through the roof, and to reach that stage they have obviously been through hours and hours of rigorous risk-taking – so hey, what can go wrong in those few public moments? Well they can’t be completely certain! Hence the backup team is always prepared for the worst from equipment, to medical teams - they invest a LOT in just ensuring they’re prepared for the small chance that something MAY go wrong.
Not to be Debbie Downer, but cue Murphy's law - "things will go wrong in any given situation, if you give them a chance," or the more commonly heard, "anything that can go wrong, WILL go wrong”. While there is levity to the theory, it does have a universal appeal when it comes to preparing for down times.
Things go sideways.
It’s naive to believe you’re perfectly set up for whatever you’re setting out to do.
As I write, no doubt business owners the world over are reaching deep within and finding the wherewithal to survive what many see as the large economic downturn coming up.
What does that mean for those of us that built businesses with the intention to gown and sell?
We fully get why so much planning and energy needs to go into staying the course.
And while you’re steering that course ably and well, now more than ever a strong succession plan must certainly not drop off our radars of consideration.
Over the next few week, in my written communication to you, I will explore some of the aspects of succession planning.
I know many of us are having to take a long hard look at our expenses and hunker down. There are layoffs all around. If that does become one of us, are we prepared?
More soon.
Colleen