Succession Secrets

Today’s question came from Roger in Amelia, VA. The first issue I address on today’s show is whether people have other reasons to stay with your firm than obtaining equity and how these drivers can be mobilized to negate the need for employees to own shares in the business. If the main reason for people to stay is maximizing their income, several equity-alternatives are available, including performance-based compensation and regular salary increases. If your employees “need” equity, we explore what their needs are and how owning equity would satisfy such needs, or how granting shares could help the business owner.   I identify seven such reasons on the show, including alignment between owner and employee, prestige, influence, tax treatment, etc. and suggest alternative solutions to granting equity. Even if equity is the ultimate solution, there are options that allow business owners maintain flexibility and protect themselves should the partnership ever sour. If you like the show, please subscr

What do you do when there is no one inside or outside the business that could succeed you? This was the question I received from Paul, who lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Listen to today’s episode to find out my six strategies to solve that problem. Strategy no. 1 is to find somebody further down in the organization, with the potential to be groomed into the job. Let this person shadow you, perhaps as a personal assistant/secretary or PR person. Later on, you could assign them important roles in senior management of the business. A future CEO is best off to have had exposure to sales, operations as a minimum and possibly finance. Strategy no. 2 is to poach a number two or three person from a competitor, where they have no prospect of an early promotion. Maybe they have been passed over or the top dog is too young to move on anytime soon. For strategies 3 to 6, tune into the show.  If you like the show, please subscribe for “Succession Secrets” on the Podcast app on the iPhone, which is insta

A High-Relationship business is one where clients have a relationship with a specific individual, often the founder or the CEO, and it is primarily this relationship that keeps them coming back to the business. Contrast this situation with dominant market players, such as KPMG in accounting, where the brand awareness dominates client-retention. Examples to high-touch businesses include: money management, legal services, medical services, insurance sales, etc. The goal of a succession process is to transfer all client relationship to succession management or a new owner, without losing any business. In today’ episode, I describe six ways that transition can be affected by high-touch businesses to avoid losing clients. In fact, I believe the firm will gain clients by following this process. You can listen to the show on your iPhone or Android phone, by downloading any podcast app and searching for “Succession Secrets”. If you like the show, please “subscribe” for Succession Secrets on the Podcast ap

In this episode, I am answering Darnell’s (Hampton, VA) question:  How do I Transition from an Entrepreneur to Venture Capitalist? There are several examples of successful entrepreneurs becoming serial entrepreneurs and eventually venture capitalists.  Motivations could include, high non-executive earnings potential, curiosity, and desire to be involved in state of the art technologies with smart, driven entrepreneurs, a stimulating lifestyle, and the ability to mentor smart and successful people.   These are all possible reasons. The most valid business reason, however, is to use venture capital to leverage your skills and network. In this episode, I describe how to acquire the knowledge to play in the VC world and six different tactics that an entrepreneur might use to get exposure and even immersion in venture capital. Thank you for listening.  If you enjoy the show, please go to iTunes and rate us, so that it can get in front of a bigger audience.  If you would like me to answer your questi

In today’s episode, I answer Marian’s question which he emailed from Slovakia. Proprietary deals are those, to which you get to first. It is the opposite of a non-proprietary deal, which is being shopped by an intermediary who wants to turn you into a commodity so that you have to compete with price.   Marian works at a buy-and-hold private investment company and wants to get deals where he can build a bilateral relationship with business owners. Bilateral is good. Relationship is better still. How can he do it? This is a big topic, but in today’s episode, I describe my 8-step process to build a proprietary deal flow.  Articulate the types of deal (Size, Situation, Sector) Buy and research a list Craft your story and message Get your story out Become a thought leader and serve your target market Network with intermediaries serving your market Reverse engineer the desired results Turn reaching out into a habit Yes, it involves planning, process and persistence. But it works. It is the exact pro

Adrenaline is Addictive. The excitement of deadlines, running late, and courting danger is a source of joy for business owners and executives. It gives us a boost of energy that we use to get projects done and put out fires. The problem is, that adrenaline was designed for survival, not for living. In fact, your addiction to adrenaline can prevent you from building a great company. It is the single biggest obstacle to succession. In today’s episode, I discuss why business owners succumb to adrenaline addiction and how they stay stuck in reactive mode as a result. You will learn how to wean yourself off adrenaline, by replacing it with another, more productive addiction. Question of the Day: What is super-important for your business that you can’t get to? Your Succession is Success!

Hall of Fame basketball coach, Bobby Knight said that: “The key is not the will to win, everybody has that. The key is the will to prepare to win.” This quote is relevant to a discussion I had today with a client about the commitment of employees to the company’s and their personal growth. I argued that it depended on whether the employee had sufficient desire to achieve, which he disagreed with. As it turned out, we interpreted the subject of the desire differently, but we agreed that the motivation has to be there. Without the tension of unfulfilled desire, exceptional performance is unlikely to occur. Listen to today’s episode to learn the reasons why desire is essential to success and the various triggers that can catalyze desire to achieve. Learn how leadership can generate “mass desire” in the workforce, while inherently only a small percentage of the staff would self-drive for results. Feel free to tweet me your succession-related questions to: #asksuccessionsteve. Your Succession is Succes

It is a widely accepted tenet in sales that customers decide with emotion and justify with logic. The same thing may be happening in leadership. Let me explain. I met with a CEO today a very successful operator, who has been successfully growing and developing her business.  She has installed and redesigned processes replaced her leadership team, managed out poor performers and created detailed mid-term strategic and operating plans.  Results have improved dramatically, but to her consternation, the place is still not buzzing with energy. On the contrary, people are generally not excited to work for the company and a recent survey even showed a growing percentage of disengaged employees. We were discussing what she could do to inspire her troops. What could help the business attract ambitious associates that could propel the business to new heights going forward. Listen to this episode of Succession Secrets to learn what my hunch was about the situation, about the Logic-and-Emotion-Meter and how it can be

Jeffrey Gitomer, renowned sales trainer said that “People don’t like to be sold, but they love to buy”. So how can you turn your selling process into a buying process? Make sure the product fits the customer Make sure the customer is right for your business Listen to this episode to learn how you can find out the answers to the above questions.  If you offer value to the customer, don’t be afraid to qualify them.  Let them prove it to you that they are good enough to benefit from your offer.  This strategy works especially well when you can create scarcity in your service. Question of the Day: What question would best qualify your customer? Your Succession is Success

Grit is one of the strongest indicator of success, for entrepreneurs and other leaders. A Gritty person is tireless, strives to always do a good job and gets things done. I have found that there excelling in four distinct areas makes for a gritty individual.  These are: Resilience, Comfort with Discomfort, Embracing the Fear of Failure and three specific Beliefs. Listen to this episode of the Succession Secrets show to learn what the underlying skills are that help you become grittier and more successful. Question of the Day: What is Your Goal That Scare You? Don’t forget to tweet your question to #asksuccessionsteve or message it through Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram. Your Succession is Success!

Succession requires growing people in your organization so that they can step up to bigger and bigger roles over time.  We as leaders achieve our success through the work of others. Therefore, our most valuable skill is coaching our leaders and the most important tool of coaching is good listening. In this Episode, Steve explains the skill of Triplex listening, he learned from Dave Buck, the CEO of Coachville.  “Triplex” refers to the three levels of listening:   What is being said What is not being said (reading between the lines) The energy of the speaker. Listen to this podcast episode to learn what each level represents, together with examples of each. Question of the Day: Are you a “Monoplex”, a “Duplex” or a “Triplex” listener?

In this episode, you can learn about how most employees lose their value proposition eventually. With the words of Dan Kennedy: “They all go lame….” According to the “Peter Principle” of the Parkinson Laws, “Every employee is eventually promoted to his own level of incompetence”.   Successful and productive employees tend to get carried away with their own greatness and the company’s apparent dependence on their services. Compensations do not increase indefinitely and when the excess bucks stop coming employees often respond by holding back performance and developing and “attitude deficiency”. Listen to the story of a former high-flying employee who stopped growing and eventually became a liability for my organization and how I dealt with him in what turned out to be a mutually advantageous solution. Question of the Day: How do You manage your valuable employees who have stopped growing?   Visit Us: https://entrepcoaches.com/getting-started/  

Growth requires a proactive compared to a reactive approach to entrepreneurship and leadership. Listen to how proactivity manifests itself in attitude and behavior. An indispensable ingredient to proactivity is a regular slot of quiet time protected from the whirlwind of workday activities. In this episode, I discuss how not to schedule our protected time and how Edison leveraged his afternoon naps to generate ideas. Learn the best times of the day to plan, strategize and reflect and my story of how I used to get 90% of my output done by the time I hit the office. Question of the Day: When is Your Protected Time?

Delegation is hard. It requires letting go of perfectionism and stepping out of your comfort zone. It requires developing new skills and tackling the possible feeling of inadequacy, fear of failure and forgoing the gratification upon leaving the comfort zone tasks behind. Delegation is necessary, as growth is not possible without it. There are only so many hours in the day and you can undertake new project only in place of tasks foregone. Listen to the two ways of delegation and why one trumps the other for most people. Question of the Day:  What is your “old cloth” ripe for discarding?

Success is addictive, which is a good and bad thing. It’s good when after you have tasted success, you want more and will strive for it. Success begets success. It can be bad if you stop being successful the way you used to be and hurt yourself trying. Listen to the story of an athlete friend who suffered that fate and how his situation gets played out in business. In this episode, I also talk about ways Succession can solve success-addiction and make it safe. Thanks for listening and please subscribe to the podcast on the iTunes Podcast App, to allow the show reach a wider audience. If you would like your questions answered on future episodes, tweet them to #asksuccessionsteve.

The faster your company grows the earlier your and others’ succession can happen.  And for rapid growth, sales effectiveness is critical. What often kills sales effectiveness is long sales cycles.  Some industries, such as IT Solutions, Government Contracting and my own previous business, Investment Banking are notorious for having long sales cycles. Brruh. The longer the sales cycle, the more resources it consumes and the riskier each sale becomes.  The more time it takes to close the sale, the higher the chance for the client to change his mind, for circumstances to change, or even for the money to disappear from the customer’s purse. In this episode, I share with you a quirky process Vistage groups use to shorten sales cycle for their members and some of the ways I succeeded with shortening sales cycles in my business and what I see worked for others.  Shortening the sales cycle by just 25%, can grow your sales by 33% and your profits by 50% or more. Tune into the show, you won’t regret it. Your Suc

Succession comes from the latin “succedera”, which means:“to come close behind”.    I believe that we all must have a succession plan to move to the next level in our career and in our business. Every leader, be they founders, operators or mid level managers, need a succession plan.   In this podcast you can hear about 6 different succession situations in an organization and how the person graduating from and the person coming close behind is looking to accomplish. Listen to me explaining the six succession situations,one or more of which will most likely resonate with where you are in your business life and career. In future episodes I will start answering your questions, so please tweet whatever you would like to learn about succession and entrepreneurship to #asksuccessionsteve. You may also message me on Linkedin, Facebook or Instagram. Your Succession is Success!

“Succession” has traditionally been thought of as being “Succession Planning”.  Set a date.  Look for a successor. Groom him or her for the job. Transition. Retire. Listen to Steve, as he explains why family companies treat “Succession” as a one-time event and how this is not helping these businesses achieve fast growth. Learn how Private Equity-backed businesses and Fortune 500 companies think about Succession and what is the average succession cycle of each of these groups and why. Listen to this podcast episode to find out what a continual succession program is and how it can help your company grow and attract better talent.    

Today’s episode of Succession Secrets is about the value of positioning.  Listen to Steve as he explains how by creating a Unique Sales Position, you will immediately become more attractive to your market and how it will allow you to compete with established and much bigger players. Listen to Steve’s story about how he positioned his fledgling investment banking firm when he first arrived in America and how this strategy will help you not just win niche business, but reach out to the broader market.  Question of the Day: What is Your USP?

Welcome back Succession Seekers!  Time is money. – More than money.  Money lost can be recovered, but time lost is gone forever. If you want to become more valuable to your business, you have to grow the value of your time. If your goal is to make $200,000 a year, your work will have to earn you $100 every hour, assuming 250 full working days in the year.  If you want to make a $1 million, your time must be worth $500 an hour.  In this podcast Episode, your succession coach Steve Preda will share with you his number one strategy to help his clients use their time more effectively.  He also shares strategies on how to continually jack up your hourly charge.  You will also find out how this strategy helps morale in the whole company and how it boosts growth across the organization. Question of the Day: What is the best use of your time? Your Succession is Success!