It’s here before you know it

Recently, I became a great-uncle to an adorable little peanut named Daya Rose. While delighted I’m also slightly depressed as I clearly remembered the day I received a call when her mother was born.

Next month, my baby graduates from college. More than 20 years cannot possibly have passed since she took her first steps by the fireplace of the home we had just purchased and still live in today.

I guess my point is that no one really has anywhere near the time they think they do to accomplish both what they want and what they need to do. That and I also suddenly realized I’m a lot older than I thought. Unfortunately, that accelerated time lapse goes double for succession planning.

Not nearly as many firm owners and partners have a clear strategy for succession once they determine they want to slow down from full-time work as should they have – and statistic after statistic bears out that troubling procrastination. Sadly, many feel that if you ignore the problem it might go away. I challenge anyone to show me an example where that “bury your head in the sand” mindset has worked out successfully. 

I think there’s a better chance of hitting Powerball.

With the end of another tax season just weeks away – sans extensions – it might be a prudent time to at least begin mulling the framework of the future of your firm – especially if you’re in the same chronological ballpark as yours truly. They say one person turns 65 every eight seconds in the U.S. That means nearly 11,000 people hit that age tier each day. And I’ll be willing to be that at least a fraction of those are equity partners in CPA firms.

Some of those who were prescient enough over the years to develop a strong “bench” will be lucky enough in most cases to conduct a seamless internal transition. For those that haven’t, then your succession solution likely lies externally via an upstream merger.

Either way, once April 18^th comes and goes, it’s time for many of you to take a deep breath and tackle one of the most important tasks you’ll likely undertake in your career – the next phase so to speak for you and your firm.

Too many times I’ve spoken to firm owners who’ve assured me that “we’ll consider doing something next year,” when it’s painfully obvious they’re several years behind from when they should have begun the process.

Trust me, the period from when you’re going from changing onesies to watching your daughter accept her hard earned diploma goes fast and unfortunately waits for no one.