cri·sis
"a time of intense difficulty, trouble, or danger."
a·vert·ed
"prevent or ward off (an undesirable occurrence)"
Jeremy came to my office one day to see if our company could help him sell his bottling company to his employee, Glen. Jeremy was so sure of Glen’s abilities and desires for the company, he never even let us interview him.
We worked on the plan for months, navigating different selling options, stock purchase plans, estate planning tools for Jeremy, and a host of other contingent decisions.
We were well on our way to finishing up the plan when we finally met with Glen. Imagine our surprise to find out he didn’t even want the company!
His plan was to retire in the next couple of years and work on his side business. He was shocked to find out Jeremy was planning on giving the company to him – they had never even had a conversation about it.
But here’s the thing, Jeremy was still ahead of the game. Yes, we had to pivot and change direction, and lost some months planning in the wrong direction. But can you imagine what would’ve happened if Jeremy had decided not to do any planning? The day of his retirement he would’ve walked up and said, “it’s all yours” to a guy who would’ve probably said, “I’m out too.”
Instead, a crisis was averted and Jeremy had time to change direction, and set his company up for a lucrative 3rd party sale.
Planning is crisis aversion. Get ahead of the game.