Shownotes
The Bus Plan: If you got hit by a bus, what would happen to your business?
If you are operating a business with a positive impact that you would like to continue after you are no longer in the business, you need to plan for it.
Succession planning is the process of replacing yourself as the founder with a new leader so that the business will continue to have the same impact it is currently having with you at the helm.
If you have spent a lifetime building a business that has a great ministry for God, why would you leave the continuance of that ministry to chance? Plan for the transition.
Today we are joined with Harry Jones who helps people transition their business to the next leaders.
One question to ponder: What is the impact your business is having that makes it worthwhile to continue after you are gone?
That’s a good question.
Join us today as we delve into that and other insights to guide you on the journey of passing your business on.
I realize this may not be your need today, but it will be someday. Plan today to make that future day better.
Redeem Your Business Today by the Following:
How can we honor God in our business?
Your business belongs to the Lord. Live like it.
One challenge from today:
Define the impact your business is having today.
Question to ask: If you were to shut down your business in the next 90 days, who would care? What difference would it make?
More About Harry Jones
Website https://cultivatingimpact.biz/
Join a group contact form: https://www.cultivatingimpact.biz/contact-harry-t-jones
Book: Succession Planning for Impact
Free Resource: JUMPSTART YOUR SUCCESSION PLANNING TODAY!
More About David Schmidt
Subscribe to Redeeming Business Today Podcast Newsletter
Website redeemingbusinesstoday.com
Mentioned in this episode:
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Transcripts
David:
[0:00] If you have a God-honored business that is being used to minister to others, good for you. The question of the day becomes, what would your business be like when you were gone? And if you spent years building a business that honors God, why would you leave the future to chance? The solution is succession planning. And so when you work and plan towards replacing yourself while you're still able to lead, you can better ensure your business will continue with the same values that you have previously instilled into it. Today, I brought on expert Harry Jones to talk about succession planning and what you can do in your business to continue, basically so your business can continue serving God faithfully years after you're gone. Harry, welcome to Redeeming Business today. And to get started, what is one way, you've talked to a lot of business owners and people, what is one way that you have found that people have honored God in their business?
Harry:
[1:00] Well, I'm living a life of second and third chances, David. And I've had two 20-year careers with great companies, leading great companies, had good teams. But it took me most of that time to realize that the business belongs to the Lord. It's there for a reason much more impactful than just making money. I went to Central Asia a few years ago on a business's mission trip.
Harry:
[1:33] And I saw there in the 14 days we were there. We were in three countries that end in STAN. And we visited numerous businesses and met with many entrepreneurs. And I was so inspired. I came back and talked to my pastor and said, Tim, I have squandered 41 years of being in business by failing to live my faith. And here were people that were living there, demonstrating their faith through the way they worked with excellence, through the way they loved people, the way they cared for their employees or cared for their customers, they cared for their vendors. And when I told my pastor I've thrown away 41 years, he said, wait, before you beat yourself up, what are you doing in your business to glorify God right now? and go double down. So that is an answer to your question about the impact.
Harry:
[2:39] What is the impact that makes your business worth continuing another generation? And that drives our work today.
Harry:
[2:50] It was very clear in that same lunch conversation that what our business was doing to glorify God, We were hiring people out of jail, out of drug rehab. My business partner of 21 years, Randy Harvey, grew up tough, and he would hire people that everybody else had given up on.
David:
[3:15] Okay.
Harry:
[3:17] And sometimes it works. He would, like, put them in, think about it, in the boxing ring. He'd wipe off their face and stitch up their eye and put them back in the ring, sometimes they would stay with us, but we always tried. And we got some great employees out of it, and it goes deeper than that. We recognize that gave us a reason to get up and go in the morning. That gave us a reason to grow our business so we could employ more people who others had given up on.
David:
[3:56] Okay, very neat. I know one of my earlier guests I've had on the show, basically after God's been working on his business so long, he's like, yeah, it's a great ministry. We bring people in, fix up their souls, and then send them on their way. And just many people have come in, got saved. And yeah, some people stay, but they always leave better than when they came spiritually. So that's neat. So yeah, I like your comment that you said, what makes your business worth continuing going? What are you doing with that?
David:
[4:29] So what is succession planning? I mean, it should be obvious what it is, but define it for us.
Harry:
[4:36] Well, we call it succession planning for impact. Okay, for impact. It's so that you can continue the impact that makes your business valuable. And we've developed a seven-step process. And we actually developed this in through working uh with a company within its third generation and and i've written about i write a story every week and we've written a book that's filled with stories all all the stories are true but we changed the names to protect the innocent and the guilty but we'll call it gill is the character in the book and gill and i sat down in his war room. Actually, we stood up all day, a whole day in his war room at the marker board all the way down the wall. And we've worked out the process for people to use, and it's seven steps. Would you like me to go through those steps? Would that be helpful?
David:
[5:38] Sure. Just give us a couple of them, and we'll talk about it.
Harry:
[5:42] The first one is confront your fears about succession planning. In my own experience, we built a great business. I was there for 20 years. In the eyes of the world, it was glorious when we sold out to a public company. I had a one-year consulting agreement. We had a wonderful team who stayed to run the business. And I crashed. Nobody knew it. I hid it well. But I went into a funk because the only identity that I had in life was CEO of a great business.
David:
[6:21] Hmm. Okay.
Harry:
[6:23] So that's step one. Step one is confront your fears about succession planning. There are three different categories. One of those categories is fear of loss of identity. I experienced it.
David:
[6:38] Okay. So people might fear succession planning because they don't know what they're going to do after if they hand their business off is what you're saying.
Harry:
[6:45] Yeah. Fear of loss of identity is one category. Another category is too many unanswered questions. What am I going to do in my life? What are people going to think? Uh, and, and financially, am I going to have enough money? Where will I live? So fear of loss of identity, too many unanswered questions and fear that someone else is going to do a better job than you.
David:
[7:11] Why would, why would that be afraid? Why would that be a fear for people to see somebody else do better than you?
Harry:
[7:18] Well, you'd think they would be celebrating. Uh, if you get into our process, uh, the, the step six is passing the baton. And there's a lot of preparation work that goes into that, but the process of passing the baton is you won't have the fastest runners. You want to hand off in, in the box, in the runner's box.
David:
[7:42] Yeah.
Harry:
[7:43] You want to hand off at maximum speed. Don't wait. Don't let the company slow down. It's okay for you to slow down, but keep your company going at maximum speed. And when you hand off, stay in your lane and cheer them on. You're exactly right, but it is, I deal with it every week. People who are afraid because they don't have anything else to do. They don't have another identity.
David:
[8:09] So what do you do to help them have an identity outside of their work? What are some tips you can give to these people?
Harry:
[8:17] Well, there's several things, several things. And we've written a book. We have a book that outlines the seven steps. At the end of each chapter on the seven steps are questions to stimulate conversations. David, it all begins with conversations. But often founders and CEOs don't want to have the conversation. And I'd be glad. I've got a recent story that happened, too. I was with a heavy equipment operator doing some work this guy has three crews of heavy equipment he's 40 his father's 70 he was in the truck with me.
Harry:
[9:00] And, uh, I said, well, what is y'all's plan for succession? And he was steaming. He said, I run the business. Dad owns the business and I can't get him to talk about it. So it all starts with conversations. We have questions to help you. So some of the tools you can buy the book is available on Amazon. You get an audible, you get it on Kindle, just do it yourself and go through that process. Maybe some of those questions will help you stimulate the conversation. I write a weekly story. And we have a private email list you can subscribe to. And any of your listeners, David, if they want to talk about a specific issue, you can go to my website, cultivatingimpact.biz. Maybe you have it in the show notes as a contact form. you reach out you tell me you're a friend of of of david smith's and i'll be glad to arrange a call and and be your first call will be free okay.
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