WITH MARTHA SULLIVAN
How would you rate your ability to deal with stress these days? Chances are, if you’re like me, you are feeling it. Work lives up to its name (“work”). The juggle with family may have morphed into a third job of educator. And then there’s all the other chaos swirling about.
What if you’re too young to retire? (I know I am!) What does it mean if all the sudden we find ourselves at a crossroads?
There’s a gold rush of sorts in 2020. Not for everyone, of course, but for some lucky souls there is. Perhaps your company is one of the “forty-niners” of 2020 by virtue of a rush in demand for your products and services. Maybe you swiftly flexed your products, services, and capacity to replace and grow volume. Or perhaps your business was fortunate enough to participate in the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to gain important financial support during the pandemic.
Many of us are trying to decipher what normal looks like, especially if we are planning for the future of our businesses. If you are looking to understand the current value of your business, the question is similarly vexing. Where’s the crystal ball when you need one?
This is a question I have been asking myself a lot lately. Sometimes it’s in relation to my health and my family members’ health. Other times it’s in relation to participating in conversations around the current social and political events. Of course, it’s always in the back of my mind about growing my business.
Of all the lessons of recent months, one of the more surprising ones was how little most of us knew about the proper way to do simplest thing. We’ve been doing it since the days we first could reach a faucet — wash our hands.
Last summer, my husband and I went on vacation. The house we rented was on a small lake and had kayaks. We enjoy kayaking so we hopped in a two-person boat. Shortly thereafter, I remembered why there is joy in a one-person kayak.
About a week ago during a manager meeting update, one of those famous phrases from the Star Trek series came rushing to my mind — “She canna take any more, Cap’n!” No kidding. It feels that way for pretty much all of us.
One of my mother’s favorite things to say to me when I was frustrated by something was, “Think of it as another learning opportunity.” By the time I made it to adulthood, the last thing I wanted was “another learning opportunity.” Yet here we all are.
Back in 2010, Harvard Business Review published a study on how companies fared coming out of the Great Recession based upon their approach to the severe economic downturn.
Spending half her career as an advisor to privately-held and family businesses and the other half in CFO/COO roles, Martha Sullivan is a partner and the succession planning practice leader in the business transition strategies group at Honkamp, Krueger & Co., P.C. She and her team have extensive experience assisting business owners achieve their personal, business, and transition goals. “Don’t think of the ‘exit’ from your business like it’s a four-letter word. Make it your next adventure!”
