I picked up a booklet published by New Zealand Trade & Enterprise the other day. It was called ‘Planning for Success, Helping you develop your own business plan’. There is loads of great information in there and definitely a useful resource for small business owners to help focus thinking when it comes to business planning. Great that the government recognises the importance of small business to our economy and applies resource to improve this sector.
In the preface of this publication it states that more than 90% of businesses employ less than 20 staff, and that small businesses are the very backbone of the New Zealand economy. Indeed we are a most entrepreneurial nation, which is awesome. By contrast, as a nation we are also among the worst in the developed world when it comes to personal debt and planning for retirement. As our population ages, how prepared are we for a growing group of older people with no means for financially supporting themselves?
It occurs to me that there is a connection here and a very real solution for the economy by making a link between the amount of small business owners in our country and the potential future personal wealth these business owners could be creating for themselves.
Who talks about a business as being the wealth creation tool for its owner? What business planning documents ever propose that a business owner plan to exit from their business with their future income provided for? What about building an exit strategy for the owners as the primary busines goal in every business plan?
The more I look into business planning resources, the less I find on the subject of owner exit strategies. Which makes my purpose and vision for liber8yourbusiness even more meaningful to me. To help business owners build a business that pays them back for all their hard work and feeds them wealth long after they have walked away. I’ll keep working on it…