Can You See The Future?
Posted on September 4, 2015 by Phil Elworth
Can You See The Future?
If you own a business, this can be a challenging task. The economy, the stock market, the changing political landscape, China, oil prices, taxes, Obamacare, new technology, the success or failure of your customers…there are a lot of things that could happen, many of them out of your control. And then there’s your personal situation…your family, your health, the things you want to do outside of work. Many personal events could alter your path in unpredictable ways. As a successful business owner, the leader of your family AND an individual who wants to live your best life, ARE YOU READY FOR THE FUTURE?
Eventually, all of us business owners will move on to something else. The idea of moving on – semi-retirement, retirement, another venture or enterprise, a new lifestyle – is one that should not be underestimated. If you have spent years, even decades building a business and going into work every day, your self-esteem and identity are more than likely tied directly to your business. Leaving it may very well entail loss and an associated grieving process. While as a business owner, you had a position, authority, people sought you out, employees had questions, there was strategy to fulfill, payroll to meet. Once you sell or transition out in some other way, all this goes away to be replaced by………?
Questions business owners ask when they decide to move on include: Do I have the financial wherewithal to move on? Will my employees be taken care of? What will my legacy be or what do I want it to be? These and many other issues that come into play in under the heading of READINESS. These can be tough questions and anyone considering a transition of any kind must give full thought to them.
How would you feel if you knew with clarity what your life could look like 3-5 years into the future? If you had a clear plan and path for making this happens? Wouldn’t this help you move forward with focus and confidence?
In addition to my training and financial background as a CFO, I’ve integrated another resource, Empowered Wealth, into the services that I offer to business owners. Empowered Wealth has a process that business owners can use to help identify what may be next for them. They employ a series of exercises to help an owner visualize what their life could look like a number of years down the road. This is followed by tools and coaching that help distill a multi-year strategy down to a series of 90 day segments that move you toward these larger goals.
To give you an example of this, my wife and I are trying to determine how we can do winter, other than in Chicago where we currently live. We are visualizing this as a goal. While there are many unanswered questions around the concept – how do we do this while still working? Where exactly do we want to go? What would we do? Would we have friends, find a church etc. – the plan and path starts with visualizing the goal of being somewhere warmer than the zero degrees that Chicago holds for us each January. Once we have established this as the goal, then the question becomes, in the next 90 days, what can we do to move this dream forward?
This same process can help you see the future. How would you feel if you could, as a business owner, proactively engage in a logical, proven process that would optimize your transition from your business? Wouldn’t you want to be able to think and plan in a clear manner? Wouldn’t you want to integrate your business plan and path along with your personal and family aspirations?
With the tools and resources I have available to me, I believe that I can help you make your best future become a reality. Please allow me to show you how we can do this together.
In the next article we will look at the second part of READINESS: preparing your business for a transition.
Phil Elworth
Partner with B2B CFO®
312 203-8918
photo credit: Congreso Wearables Big Data Salud 2 via photopin (license)
