Succession planning should not be left to the survivors. When founders of business die unexpectedly, the business often dies with them.

The founder's survivors usually have other motivations and liquidation is the most efficient way to get capital out of the business. The intangible value of the business is lost, the employees suffer, and the business goes away.

Dave Barham knew he was going to die. Funny thing is, all of us know we are going to die. But, Dave was a little different. In his last year, he hammered out his succession plan. The rest is history, the founder's story extended well into the future, with his values and love of life carried forward within the joy of today's owners and their creation of delicious food.

Topic for Discussion: What are most of us waiting for?

Answer: We are not waiting; we, to date, had not known what our options were. Here at Small Business School, we do not even have a formal will. We have personal wills but not a business will.

We are not in denial. We could die any day now, but we just have not slowed down long enough to do it. Foolish? Stupid? Yes. But, the heart of it is that we also never thought we had much of any real tangible value in this business and "Why make a mountain out of a molehill?" How short-sighted of us! As a result of this show, we are going to make a full-court press to put a succession plan in place and also to do some form of ESOP, employee stock ownership plan, or SCOR.

You think about it: What is your succession plan? If you don't have one, do you think you should? What can you do now to start planning for later?