A big day in the early life of Ownership Ladder

A big day in the early life of Ownership Ladder

Today, I created the book intro and the section summaries. Ready to format and e-book it for test readers.

Also! I had lunch with a local Economic Development Corporation and they invited me to speak about the book at their monthly lunch. If it goes well, virtually every town and city in Texas has an EDC.

Promising opportunities.

The stats

In the USA there are:

5,000,000 total businesses *

4,995,000 privately held **

4,715,000 small businesses***

4,450,000 business employ fewer than ten people

Of the 180,000,000 people employed…

90,000,000 are employed by the 4,995,000 privately held businesses.

These numbers are rounded for simplicity.
* Note, this excludes solo businesses with one employee
** I have included the approximately 10,000 thinly, or not traded OTC stocks.
*** This includes businesses with more than 10 but less than 100 employees.
https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/advocacy/2018-Small-Business-Profiles-US.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilshire_5000
https://www.bls.gov/bdm/entrepreneurship/bdm_chart7.htm
https://www.bls.gov/bdm/bdmfirmsize.htm
https://www.sba.gov/advocacy/firm-size-data

Hey there Millennial's and GenXrs! The demographics are in your favor.

Hey there Millennial's and GenXrs! I've read 2 interesting articles this morning, both posted on LinkedIn. The first was by a Millennial in Business Insider about how far behind Millennial's feel they are economically. The second was about succession planning from the elite retirement and wealth advisors conference Fi360 Conference, about 5 succession hurdles.

Here's the good news if you are a Millennial or GenX, the demographics are in your favor. Because the youngest Boomer, likely your boss, is 57 in 2019 and the oldest GenX is also 57 in 2019. You see there is a crossover in generations. Generational dynamics are not a scientific absolute, it shares the same root with the word generality. That's why I say the demographics are in your favor if you are a younger GenX or anywhere in the Millennial group. All the Boomers and progressively most of the GenX business owners will HAVE to find a successor in the next 20 years. That's going to create a seller’s glut.  Sooner than later.

What is already dismal data on the ability of Boomers to sell their business will get worse. But for the fact that you can position yourself to be the successor, and that's what it has to take; you can position yourself as the INSIDE BUYER successor. Don't wait for an invitation from the boss, they are probably avoiding the inevitable. Decide you're going to be the successor. Do what you need to do to be capable of being the successor. You will be ideally positioned to be the inside buyer both your boomer boss and older Gen X owners must have if they're going to retire.

I cover this in more detail in my upcoming book.

Ownership Ladder
How a Smart Employee Can Buy out the Boss

Bill Heestand

A video splainer. What is the succession boom?

Watch this!

https://youtu.be/UHeBtGcXnMc

What does succession mean?

Defining BOOM

Succession means a series, a cycle, an order, a continuation. Business succession is that but not necessarily through bloodline or inheritance. Because even if its family various laws make it impossible to just GIVE a business to anyone, including family. They must be purchased somehow. Now I am purposefully not going to be discussing “put you to sleep“ tax and legalisms in Ownership Ladder. There are plenty of tomes out there to bore the life out of you. If I start writing one of those, well, kill me now.

Succession also does not mean what larger organizations mean when they are looking for a new senior executive. In that context they say succession, but they are recruiting, and usually by committee, to hire someone new.

Succession in our sense of the word will be downloaded to you. By the end of this book you will have a clear picture in your mind of your own captivating future.

The ownership secret

Welcome.  You are not yet a business owner.  You want to be an owner someday.  Learn the secrets those who are the usual gate keepers to ownership won't or can't let you in on.  I will.  I can.  I'm doing it in my book.  I'll reveal some of those secrets here.  Watch for updates here.

Thanks for visiting.

Bill Heestand author/mentor