When your company grows beyond you

By Emma Peterson. 

How succession planning and fractional advisors help owners secure their legacy and their company’s future.  

In the trades, businesses often start as small, family-owned operations. And when these businesses are small, it’s natural that many owners find themselves wearing multiple hats and managing a seemingly endless list of day-to-day tasks. But as any company grows, it becomes necessary for that to change. This change is what Kristen McAlister of Cerius Executives stopped by The Coffee Shops™ to talk about in an episode of Contractor Outlook™.  

Letting go of a business that you’ve poured blood, sweat and tears into can be hard. But if you want your business to thrive long-term, planning for that letting go, for that succession, is key. Kristen explained, “Whether you're looking to pass your business onto the next generation or the next owner, succession planning is key. And the key to good planning is thinking of your legacy as the team you’ve built, not yourself.” 

What does this mean? Building a legacy means building something that outlasts you. And the way you do that as a company owner is to hire a team that can run your business without you managing every little thing. So, how do you learn to take that step back? That’s something that Kristen and the Cerius team help owners do all the time! She shared:  

We are placing a lot of experts in businesses for interim positions as fractional advisors. In this role, these experts come in for however much time the owner wants, whether that’s five hours a month or a full 40 hours a week, and are there to help them decouple themselves from the business, so it’s less reliant on them. And we're still keeping that legacy that they started the company with; we’re just figuring out how to make it so the owner could go on a multi-week vacation or eventually retire and know their legacy will live on. 

And to be clear, these fractional advisors are not placed to take over from the people who have built the company. In fact, in many cases Kristen has seen them help with the handover to original employees or team members. She noted,“A lot of owners want to hand the company to an operations person who’s grown up in the company. And we’ll put a fractional advisor in place to work alongside that person, to make sure they have the tools and skills needed to succeed. Like on-the-job coaching. And then when that person is confident and comfortable, the advisor leaves them to carry on the legacy.”  

Want to learn more about how fractional advisors can help with succession planning? Listen to the episode or Watch the recording!