This week I received a call from a CPA firm owner who had
sat in on a presentation I gave a while back before one of the state societies.
If there was ever a Webster’s unabridged definition of a
firm owner who should be planning for succession it was this man.
He was in his late 60s, a sole owner and no one within
three area codes who worked for him had the desire or the wherewithal to assume
the reins of the practice. Therefore, he had two choices, merge or eventually
turn out the lights.
So I sent him the requisite paperwork and explained in
detail how our M&A process worked.
Everyone who’s ever spent a day in sales knows that yes
is the best answer you can get and no comes in second. His answer was a distant
third – “let me think about it.”
A very distant third.