FAAA webinar: Building a business that can run without the owner

When a business relies on its owner for sales, relationships and decisions, that dependence affects what it is worth. The session treated it as a value issue and a risk issue.

The FAAA's session outline set out three ways to reduce it over time: documented processes, a second layer of management, and customer relationships that can transfer to a new owner, with examples of businesses before and after they made the shift.

For many clients, their business is their largest asset. The FAAA set the session up to give advisers a way to assess that asset, and a way to think about their own practice's transition.

The FAAA's aim for the session was that advisers leave able to "recognise owner dependence early and describe, in plain terms, what reducing it looks like."

For the full picture, read our guide to owner dependence and how it lowers a sale price.

Exit Advisory Group works alongside financial advisers, accountants and other trusted advisers. We run the business sale, while the adviser remains the client's wealth partner before, during and after it.

Simon has written for advisers in FS Advice ↗ (opens in a new tab), and Financial Standard ↗ (opens in a new tab) has covered his case for advisers moving into exit planning.