Succession and Choosing 3rd Party Advisors

Most contractors have gone through the succession process zero times.

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Even those that have gone through the succession process before are typically facing far different scenarios the second time around. 

Succession: Effectively Selecting Your Team of 3rd Party Advisors. Primarily Accountants and Attorneys.

Choosing the right team of advisors will help you effectively explore options and refine the details of your specific succession. Few basic rules:  

  • DO NOT hand over the process to a 3rd party. You own the process. These people are there to advise you, but ultimately, the decisions are yours to own. 
  • Not all advisors will agree and that is okay and even desired so that you can use your analytical skills to make the best decision.  
  • Not all advisors will be good at all stages of the process.
  • Your existing attorney, CPA, and consulting relationships may or may not be the best choice for helping you through the succession process. Run them through the same rigorous selection process as other candidates for your advisory team.  
  • Develop a rigorous selection process for picking your team based around the outcomes you want to achieve. Treat this the same as you would for hiring a high-level executive for your team.
  • If you think the fees for some good 3rd party advisors is expensive, check out the cost of a failed succession deal.  

Succession and Choosing 3rd Party Advisors
Continue building value in your business, yourself and your key team members with a good succession strategy....

Succession and Choosing 3rd Party Advisors
Continue building value in your business, yourself and your key team members with a good succession strategy....

Four Levels of Integration and Optimization
Operational excellence must be a major component of every contractor’s strategy and baked into their daily behaviors. Optimizing at each of the four major layers requires different levels of thinking, technology, and time span.
Build Your Most Valuable Asset
There are five main value levers that contractors can pull to truly increase the value of the business as measured in long-term return on capital and valuation during a succession.
Work Conversion Cycle and Backlog Run-Off
PARADOX: A contractor can’t focus on the bigger strategic issues until they have a predictable backlog of work. If a contractor doesn’t have a solid market strategy and organizational structure in place it’s very difficult to build a consistent backlog.