Article Archives
Article Categories
Articles
The Leadership Training/Mentoring Corner - December Next Steps
THE LEADERSHIP TRAINING/MENTORING CORNER
In August of this year, the Silver Fox Advisors introduced a new offering in its monthly newsletter, which is called the Leadership Training/Mentoring Sectio,n in which we posed a thought-provoking situation for you to think about and put yourself into the situation, detailed and ask yourself – “What are your next steps”. Below is the situation that was in the December 2025 Newsletter.
DECEMBER LEADERSHIP SITUATION
You and your spouse own a $25.0 million commercial service business, and your spouse is very active in the business and originally started the business, thus he knows every aspect of the operation of the business inside and out. You have really never taken an interest in the business, but have been involved in some of the decision-making over the years. Part of the management group is a husband-and-wife team who have been employees for a number of years in the business, but neither one has an employment contract or any ownership interest. The husband is the head of operations, and the wife is the controller. The business’s debt is on the land and building and is in the form of a long-term mortgage, which is current, and a revolving line-of-credit with no outstanding balance. The owner and the spouse have wills in place stating that upon the demise of one spouse, the other spouse inherits 100.0% of the deceased spouse’s belongings.
On a dark and stormy night, the owner is driving home from the airport and is involved in a fatal accident, and passes away on the scene. You are the surviving spouse and now the 100.0% owner of a business you know little about, and you do not have any experience in running a business. You know a number of the business’s suppliers, larger clients, bankers, and attorneys socially. You do have a degree in business from a major university, and you have a pretty good understanding of financial matters.
We polled some of the Silver Fox Advisors, and below are some recommendations on what your next steps should be:
To get ahead of the uncertainties of this change with all the groups described, it would be a good idea to take a day-one approach, stating there will not be any changes in the business operation or ways of doing business. This should be communicated to each group, except the competitors, as soon as possible. The communication vehicles and messaging should be well-thought-out and crafted to relay a tone of serenity and certainty.
- Within a 30-to-60-day period, after the incident, it would be advantageous to establish and assemble an Advisory Board made up of yourself, the two key husband and wife employees, the employees' management team members, the business’s legal and accounting representatives, and a trusted family friend who has business experience.
The purpose of the Advisory Board would be to meet, initially weekly, to determine what needs to be done legally and financially, if anything, as the result of the owner change, and detail a plan of action needed to be taken with assignments of who will do what, as well as a timeline of a starting point and a finish line.
- Once this initial work of the Advisory Board has concluded, the Board can continue to meet either every other month or quarterly to assess the various elements of the business, such as revenues, gross profit margin, total operating expenses, and bottom-line profitability. In addition, this Advisory Board can work on developing a SWOT analysis for the business and financial goals, market conditions, and, annually, a business plan.
- At some point, probably within a year or two of the incident, you will want to make a financial and business decision if you want to keep the business and operate it, and what that will look like, or if you want or need to sell the business.
Again, this is the kind of decision that you should seek the advice and counsel of trusted legal, financial, business advisors, and family.
If you like being an entrepreneur and enjoy working in the business world, then keeping the business might be your desired outcome. If you want to spend time with family and friends and do some traveling, then selling the business might be the path to take.
