While you might think your managers are ready and willing to buy your business, they may have other ideas. Regardless, they likely will need time to acquire the capital and then structure their affairs accordingly. If nothing else, managers are not owners until they start thinking of themselves as such, and a bit of lead time can instill such a feeling.
But what about the other type of owner? Again, the article provides an example of an owner/manager who has a very decided life-goal in place and can therefore work to instill life-goals in his managers. Accordingly, if you plan for yourself, and allow your managers to plan for themselves, then you can train managers who can transition into becoming owners.
When the succession planning is successful, the transition is almost nothing more than economics. True, sometimes these transitions just do not work out, but it is rarely out of an abundance of planning or understanding. Instead, more than a few deals fall apart simply because they are all too sudden and unplanned.
