Looking for Succession Solutions?

Introducing a Small-Group Workshop for Owners Who Want to Leave Their Business on Their Own Terms

By Loren Feldman

Sooner or later, one way or another, every business owner leaves the business. The question isn’t whether you’ll leave. The question is whether you’ll leave on your own terms. Will you sell to family? Key employees? Investors? A competitor? Should you consider an ESOP, an Employee Ownership Trust, or a worker co-op? Or is the best answer not to sell at all?

These are among the biggest—and most personal—decisions you’ll ever make as a business owner. Yet many owners spend more time planning next year’s budget than planning the biggest financial event of their lives.

Over the past 25 years, I’ve interviewed hundreds of entrepreneurs about how they built, ran, sold, transferred—and sometimes lost—their businesses. I’ve learned that there isn’t one “right” succession strategy. Every option involves tradeoffs. I’ve also learned that owners make better decisions when they can learn from people who’ve already been through the process and from peers wrestling with the same questions. That’s why I’m creating the 21 Hats Succession Solutions Worshop.

Why This Workshop Is Different

Most succession planning begins with an advisor who specializes in a particular solution. Attorneys draft legal documents. Valuation experts value businesses. ESOP advisors help create ESOPs. Investment bankers sell companies. Business brokers broker sales.

All of those people can provide valuable expertise. But they also tend to approach succession from the perspective of the solutions they know best.

This workshop starts somewhere else. Before deciding how to execute a succession plan, we’ll spend time understanding the full range of possibilities, learning from owners who have lived with those decisions, and comparing notes with fellow entrepreneurs who are facing many of the same questions.

The goal isn’t to convince you to choose a particular path. The goal is to help you choose the path that’s right for you.

How It Works

Participation is limited to approximately 10 experienced business owners who are willing to share candidly and learn from one another. We’ll meet every other Monday on Zoom for eight two-hour sessions from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern, beginning January 11.

Each session includes two parts.

First Hour: A Special Guest

Each meeting begins with a Q&A session (not a speech) with someone who has real-world experience to share. Sometimes that will be an entrepreneur who has already gone through a transition and can talk candidly about what worked, what didn’t, and what they wish they’d known beforehand. Other times it will be a carefully vetted practitioner who can answer questions without turning the session into a sales presentation.

Second Hour: Owner-to-Owner Discussion

The second hour belongs to the participants. We’ll compare notes on the options we’re considering, challenge one another’s assumptions, discuss what we’re learning, and identify the questions we still need answered. In my experience, some of the most valuable insights business owners ever receive come from other business owners.

Topics We’ll Explore

The precise agenda will reflect the interests and questions of the 10 participants, but the issues we address will include:

• Selling to family
• Selling to key employees or a management team
• Selling to investors or strategic buyers
• ESOPs, Employee Ownership Trusts, and worker co-ops
• Why not selling may be your best option
• What your business is really worth
• How taxes affect different succession strategies
• What happens to your role, income, and identity after you step away
• What owners who’ve already exited wish they’d done differently
• Why every owner needs both a long-term succession plan and an emergency backup plan

Our First Session

Our opening session will focus on getting to know one another. We’ll discuss where each participant is in the succession process, what options they’ve already explored, what questions they most want answered, and which owners and experts they’d most like to hear from during the workshop. That conversation will help shape the guest roster for the remaining sessions.

Who This Workshop Is For

This workshop is designed for owners who:

• Know they need to begin thinking seriously about succession—even if they hope to keep working for years.
• Want to understand multiple succession options before committing to one.
• Value candid conversations with experienced peers.
• Are willing to contribute their own experiences and questions to the group.

It is not designed for owners who have already decided on a succession strategy and simply need professionals to execute it.

A Commitment to Candor

The sessions will not be recorded. No notetakers will be permitted. What’s said in the Zoom stays in the Zoom. My hope is to create the kind of trusted environment where owners feel comfortable discussing the issues they often can’t discuss anywhere else.

Dates

We’ll meet every other Monday from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern.

• January 11
• January 25
• February 8
• February 22
• March 8
• March 22
• April 5
• April 19

The Fee and The Guarantee

Founding Cohort Tuition (available through October 1): $1,650

Regular Tuition (after October 1): $1,950

Participation is limited to 10 owners so everyone has ample opportunity to participate. Registration will close once the cohort is full.

The workshop also comes with a full money-back guarantee. If you’re not completely satisfied, I’ll refund your tuition.

REGISTER HERE

If you’d like to begin working on your succession plan—before circumstances force the issue—I hope you’ll join us. And please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions: loren@21hats.com.