Half of owners of small business to retire in next 10 years

Yesterday's edition of the Ottawa Citizen carried a really interesting article about business owners wanting to retire and sell their businesses over the next ten years. What will that mean to them in terms of their financial plan? What will the huge number of businesses changing hands mean to Canadians as a whole? The big picture is bigger than most realize, as this article points out.

There may not be enough buyers for businesses at the right time. Many business owners are going to walk away from all of those years of investing their time, money and effort with absolutely nothing to show for it, because they aren't planning ahead. The article estimates that the number of business owners who end up with nothing could be as high as half of current small and medium-sized businesses.

Click here to read the article.

The best way to ensure that your lifetime of working for yourself leaves you something to retire on is to plan your exit well in advance. Planning for ten years down the road is not too early, though it may feel that way when your days are busy with running a business. Now is the time to start considering your options - whether you want to train a family member to take over, sell to employees or sell to a complete stranger or competitor.

If you need help getting started or getting organized, please refer to my book called "Succession Planning Kit for Canadian Business".