Creating your initial Succession Plan

Anna Stubbs • April 3, 2023

A Succession Plan is about maximising the value of your business so you can achieve a better outcome when it's time to exit. Many business owners don't think about a Succession Plan until they're ready to sell the business. However, it takes 3-5 years (minimum) to define and execute an effective Succession Plan.

1. Start by clarifying your business and personal goals.
Establish what you want the business to deliver to you personally. Then, set business goals that will allow you to achieve your personal goals. This will help you plan for extracting the value you require to enjoy the lifestyle you wish to lead upon succession.


2. Your vision for the business.
Succession Planning forces you to clarify and discuss your vision for the business, which will play a huge part when transferring to new ownership. Vision ultimately enables a more effective working culture, helping to align and prepare your team for succession. When your team understands the vision and how their key responsibilities and tasks contribute to the realisation of this, they become more engaged. This helps develop a more stable environment; one that's receptive to adopting new leadership and ownership.


3. Establish your business support network.
It’s important to take time out from running your business to work on developing it. Engaging your important business advisors will provide fresh and impartial perspectives at this potentially emotional time. Decision making requires a level head and independent advice to ensure you achieve your desired results.

Your solicitor may also be involved at the planning phase and will definitely be involved in drafting and signing the sale and purchase agreement, as well as when dealing with any post settlement matters.


Working with an accountant will be particularly helpful at the due diligence, valuation, and grooming stages. Our broad business knowledge and expert tax advice could help significantly increase the value of your business. Utilising a mentor or coach will help you remain accountable to your leadership role, which will ultimately have the greatest influence on your succession strategy and outcome.


We can help you with accountability coaching. In fact, we want to help you groom your business for maximum value by increasing growth and profitability, improving efficiency and capacity, and managing risks.


If you’d like to start your Success Planning journey, contact us.

The Man on the Moon Principle

By Anna Stubbs • October 22, 2025
In 1961, President John F Kennedy famously announced his goal of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth before the decade was out. As we know, in July 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to walk on the moon, and were brought back to Earth safely, achieving JFK’s goal.  At a time when most people hadn’t even been on an aeroplane, landing on the moon would’ve felt unachievable and overwhelming. However, such a massive goal united people with a purpose; the story goes that even a cleaner mopping the floor at the space station said his job was to help put a man on the moon. So, how did they make the goal achievable? They broke it down into milestones, with each one taking them closer and closer to achieving their ultimate goal. The first milestone was to achieve lift off. So, they set about resolving this challenge. The next milestone was to reach orbit, so they had a team working on this milestone. Then, they had to reach the moon’s atmosphere, land safely on the moon, take off from the moon, enter Earth’s atmosphere and land safely back down to Earth. You can see how breaking the goal down into milestones gave everyone a more achievable objective to focus on which was less overwhelming. Those milestones were then broken down into the actions which needed to be completed. Each action was essentially a small step towards reaching the ultimate goal.

5 signs you’re undercharging

By Anna Stubbs • October 22, 2025
Are you undercharging for your services? It can be hard to tell, particularly if you’re in a niche industry or you’re a contractor. Costs have been rising, so it may be time to rethink your own pricing.

Understanding your revenue drivers

By Anna Stubbs • October 22, 2025
For your business to make money, you need to generate revenue. You produce revenue through your usual business activity, by making sales, getting your invoices paid, or taking cash from paying customers. So, the better you are at selling your products/services and bringing money into the business, the higher your revenue levels will be. But what actually drives these revenue levels? And how do you get in control of these drivers?