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.

Business credit: using loans to grow your business

By Anna Stubbs • August 21, 2025
Whatever stage you’re at in the business journey, having an injection of additional working capital is always welcome. Being able to borrow money and take on managed debt in the business is what allows you to fund the next stage in your growth. But how does your credit profile affect your ability to borrow as a business? And what types of debt financing will help you expand, grow and scale up the company? Let’s explore the impact of your risk rating and the types of finance that may be available  Your credit profile: and how it impacts your ability to borrow Your credit profile is a measurement of your risk as a borrower. It’s how banks and specialist business lenders assess whether you’re a good business to lend to. Lenders want to know you have the revenue and cashflow needed to repay a loan. This will generally be assessed based on your business credit score and your overall financial health and forecasted business performance. With a good business credit score, your application for a loan is more likely to be accepted. With a poor credit profile, those doors to potential lending are more likely to be closed.

5 ways to get in control of your business finances

By Anna Stubbs • August 21, 2025
Having proper control of your business finances is a big advantage. It helps you make well-informed business decisions and keeps your organisation profitable. With so many digital tools for managing your bookkeeping, accounting and management reporting, it's never been easier to manage, track and forecast your financial position. But what are the main tools you need? And how do you set up your financial systems, apps, processes and reporting to put yourself back in the finance driving seat?

Protecting you and your business: using trusts

By Anna Stubbs • August 21, 2025
Have you ever wondered about the best ways to protect you and your business? In this series, we’ll look at the key ways to use trusts, insurance and risk-management techniques to protect both your personal assets and the future of the company. In this article, we’ll look at how you can use a trust to shelter your assets.