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Greetings!

Often times when companies have to squeeze the financial belt, developing employees and creating future leaders gets pushed aside. However building a sustainable company requires having a leadership growth and succession plan in place at all times.

 

The benefit of investing and growing employees for the future provides staggering long-term results for the entire organization. So start developing your future leaders today, it's never too soon to start! Today's youth are tomorrow's leaders.


David Hildreth
BOOST Associates

 

What's Your Exit Strategy?

What's Your Exit Strategy?There are two truths every business owner will face:
  • It is next to impossible to sell a business which isn't successful: No one is going to buy a company that hasn't consistently produced good profits, has a sustainable revenue stream with a solid customer base; generating some level of positive cash flows- and which they believe will continue after the change of ownership.

  • No one is immortal: At some point in time every privately owned business is going to be sold to the next generation or a third party. 
So why do some owners ignore the second truth?

Building a successful business requires vision, developing a flexible strategy and actually implementing that strategy. Then there's finding funding, hiring good people and keeping them, dealing with customers and suppliers, managing and leading, and we're just getting started!

When you are building a successful business, it is a totally absorbing and fulfilling endeavor and any consideration of selling it isn't even on the radar screen. When all of your time and effort is focused on dealing with what is happening now, thinking about an exit strategy seems irrelevant.

While all business owners start their companies because they have an idea they think is a winner-their baby- the folks who currently own them come from at least two different generations and points of view.

Many older owners got into business to provide an income for their families over their working lifetime, to build something tangible, and not necessarily for a capital gain at the end of the day.

Younger business owners are more likely to focus on selling before retirement age and doing something else with the money they make on cashing out.

In either situation, if you have built a successful business, but have not made any plans for your exit, this is the beginning of seeing the value you created starting to diminish and will just be a matter of degree. Is it logical to end a career spent laboriously creating value by doing something that gives that value away?

Whether you are an older or younger owner, it may not be too late to start the process to ensure you have an opportunity to exit under your own terms.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO?


Note:  Founders of highly successful, privately held companies, are almost always by definition, people who did not want to work for others. They are also highly effective people. Their success proves they understood what their customers wanted and conceived a sound way of giving it to them. Nevertheless, many of them procrastinate about the inevitable ownership transition they know is coming, sometimes to the point of refusing to talk about it. There may be a number of different reasons, but in effect, this can lead to business failure if not addressed.
Goal Setting for Students

Are your youth hopeful, engaged, and thriving?From June 11 to July 6, 2010, 642 U.S. students (ages 10-18) participated in the Gallup Student Poll. "The students were asked 20 questions meant to gauge their hope, engagement, and wellbeing-and then were classified as "ready for the future" if they scored high in all three dimensions. Gallup's research suggests that students who do well on all three metrics tend to achieve higher grades, complete more credits, and report fewer health problems than their peers. The research is meant to help leaders and educators improve student performance and in turn the high school graduation rate nationwide." - Lymari Morales

The Gallup study's final conclusion: 34% of respondents in grades 5-12 are hopeful, engaged, and thriving-others fall short in at least one of these dimensions.

Part of what facilitates a hopeful, engaged, and thriving attitude is the ability for a student to see a bright future and feel confident it is attainable. Another important statistic from the Gallup poll is that 42% of the students polled said they were energetically pursuing goals. Life is a journey and it is the most important journey we as individuals will ever take. The sooner young people are exposed to the value of goals in all aspects of their life and are taught how to use a proven goal accomplishment model the sooner they will be "ready for the future."

Seventeen years ago our company developed a youth leadership process entitled Rising Stars. It focuses on helping young people prepare for a bright future and be contributing members of their community, while exposing them to and teaching them how to use a proven goal accomplishment model. In addition to sharing the S.M.A.R.T.Y. criteria, which many people know is important to consider when building goals, we also focus on the six core components of goal setting. 

  1. Listing your dreams. Every purposeful journey aims for a destination. Where do you want to go with your life? What do you want to accomplish? What are your overall objectives? What are your dreams? Listing your dreams allows you to develop a master list of things you want to do and become-as well as things you want to achieve and attain.

  2. Conducting personal self-evaluations. You can go wherever you choose on your life's journey, but you can only start from one place. You can only start from where you are today.

  3. Developing goal categories. Once a springboard is created to clarify your dreams and you've identified your current starting point, the next step requires developing the categories of your life that you'd like to change and improve in order to realize your dreams. Goal categories provide an important step between your dreams and your goals, and they help you translate your general ideas and thoughts into action.

  4. Creating goal statements. Goal categories are then translated into specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time trackable goal statements that are solely yours (S.M.A.R.T.Y.). In our experience the more focused and specific the better.

  5. Developing specific action steps. The next step is to identify the actions you need to take in order to achieve your goals. Creating specific action steps will provide the daily, weekly, and monthly activity necessary to make your goals a reality.

  6. Prioritizing of your goals and action steps. Making a conscious decision through a prioritization process which goals or action steps are the most important. It is also a necessary step. The prioritization process will never stop, as you will need to continually evaluate what is important to your success now.

No matter your age, goal accomplishment is a life long process. It is rewarding to see young people embrace the concepts and apply them early for success in all areas of their life: school, home, career, health, and community. Goal accomplishment is the backbone of creating hopeful, engaged, and thriving lives.

I hope you have enjoyed what you've read! Please feel free to with a colleague or friend. We value your feedback, so please send any suggestions or comments to [email protected]. See you next month with special invitations to events, motivational quotes, and more useful articles and tips to help you on your path to success!

 

Sincerely,

 

David Hildreth
BOOST Associates
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What's Your Exit Strategy?
Goal Setting for Students
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"Good judgement comes from experience, and alot of that comes from bad judgement!"

Will Rogers