When you start your own business, you will often pour out your blood, sweat, and tears trying to get it off the ground and make it a success. Once your business is established and doing well, you never want to see anything derail or diminish future growth. However, as a business owner, YOU could be the biggest roadblock to your company's future growth and success if you don't plan well for the future.

Too often, the death of a business owner or key company leader can lead to the company's demise if there is not a strategic succession or transition plan in place. In today's Aegis blog post, we look at why it's so important for business owners to plan for the future, especially for what happens when they're no longer at the company.

Developing A Transition Plan

One of the most important things a business owner or company leader can have in place is a detailed transition plan in the event they are no longer with the company. A good transition plan should include such issues as choosing an immediate successor or replacement, allowing access to key data files and emails to ensure business continuity, establishing communication strategies with employees, vendors, and customers, and creating a plan for transferring company assets such as company cars, laptops, and other equipment. This can help ensure that the company continues to run smoothly even when there is a major change at the top.

Training A Successor

Once a transition plan is created, it's also essential to identify and train a successor to promote a seamless transition within the company. Ideally, a successor or future company leader should be someone who supports and promotes the mission, values, and goals of the company, and can motivate employees well. In addition, it's wise to consider choosing a successor who plans to stay with the company for a significant amount of time in order to ensure a period of stability.

Minimizing Losses or Delays

Finally, business owners or company leaders shouldn't just aim for the company to survive, but to also grow and thrive in their absence as well. In order to accomplish this, it's important to minimize any potential losses or delays that could stem from a leadership transition. This might mean meeting with long-term clients and vendors to reassure them of a continued partnership in the event of a leadership change, and to have Key Person Insurance policies in place to protect against any financial losses that stem from the loss of a business owner or key company leader.

Ideally, companies should have transition plans and successors in place to help minimize disruptions to companies in the event of a leadership change. However, Aegis Insurance & Financial Services can also help your company have the stability and financial support needed if a leadership change results in losses. Key Person Insurance is a death benefit that can help provide financial assistance due to the loss of revenue and customers when an owner or leader dies. It can also be used to help fund recruitment costs in finding a replacement or successor if one is not already in place. If you're interested in adding Key Person Insurance to your Commercial Insurance portfolio, contact Aegis today at 713-850-7622 for more information.