9 Ownership Transition Issues Specific to Contractors

All businesses face challenges with an ownership transition.

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There are nine interrelated issues that heavily impact contractors. 

Succession: 9 Ownership Transition Issues Specific to Contractors.

We will dive deeper into each of these over the next week:

  1. Strength and alignment of the management team (post-deal)
  1. Culture of the company - Is it prepared for an ownership succession and compatible with the new owner? Seems “soft” but is very “hard” and can destroy value quickly.  
  1. Key relationship continuity with employees, customers, and others.
  1. Financial partner alignment with banking, surety, and possibly insurance.  
  1. Cash generation capabilities.
  1. Asset vs. stock sale - who owns past liabilities, how are they quantified, and what is the tax implication?
  1. Sustainable growth strategy and plan to ensure value is created for all stakeholders.  
  1. Future direction of the construction industry and ensuring you are neither selling nor buying the equivalent of a horseshoe manufacturer and installer in 1900.  
  1. Extremely low barriers to entry for new contractors can easily create competitors out of unaligned stakeholder groups, which often destroys value.  

9 Ownership Transition Issues Specific to Contractors
Continue building value in your business, yourself and your key team members with a good succession strategy....

9 Ownership Transition Issues Specific to Contractors
Continue building value in your business, yourself and your key team members with a good succession strategy....

PICK SMART Improvements
Contractors will never have enough resources to solve all problems or take advantage of every opportunity they face. There are a couple tools that can be used to align the team around the best utilization of resources:
Progressive Levels of Business Development
The most important first step for a contractor is to find a customer who will pay for a project. With continued growth, the process of business development becomes progressively more complex including how it is integrated with strategy and operations.
Cash Flow and the 5Cs of Credit - Overview
Contractors need strong financial partners, including banking, surety, and insurance to grow sustainably. It is important to understand how they evaluate your contracting business.