There are three ways of looking at preparing your business for succession. You can do it now, while you are successfully running your business. You can put it off until later, when you hope you will have more time. Or, you can plan to never do this work.
In research done by Environics [1], that I have quoted before, “36% [of Canadian Small Business owners] don’t plan to give up ownership until they are not well enough to manage their business.” This means that more than 1/3 of owners could, one day, not be able to run their companies, leaving their employees and families in a bind to try and figure out a make-shift succession plan. No one gets training that is needed. Control over bank accounts, relationships, leases, etc. including decision making, is left up in the air. The chaos of this transition time will make it impossible to ensure business continuity. This may cause the loss of sales, clients, other intangible assets to the company, like the skills, knowledge, and expertise of long time workers.
If you never think about what your succession looks like, you are leaving the future success of the company to chance.
It is reasonable to have a project you want to put in place, and to know it is not the right time to plan it. If this is true for your succession, don’t just say, some day, state the date. If you have an important project that you know will make a difference to your company, you make an effort to define when that will start. This is the same for your succession planning. The planning will allow you to evaluate your potential exit timeline and will help you define the implementation process used to get the business, and your people, ready to Run Without You.
If you set a timeline to prepare, you can ensure this important project happens on time, on budget, and be successful, like any other project. Otherwise, it will become a ‘never’ event.
The ultimate planning is to start with the end in mind. You have likely heard that before. Now is the best time. Whether you are hoping to retire in 3 years, sell in 10 years, or you’re new to your business success, you should be thinking about what your succession looks like. Succession planning takes knowledge of the future, for you and for the operations of your business. It requires decision making, to define what you are actually hoping to achieve, and then it takes implementation. It is a change transition, from how you are working now, to what your business needs to look like in the future, when it is successful enough for someone else to want to purchase it from you.
If you want value now for the future, you need to start now on your future. Don’t let succession be a later or never decision.
This article is 100% original content – The articles you read in this blog are 100% created by Barb Stuhlemmer, not by AI. © 2026 Barb Stuhlemmer
[1] https://environics.ca/investments-and-planning/four-in-ten-canadian-small-business-owners-are-uncertain-about-retirement/
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