How to Have Everything You Want
for the Rest of Your Life

By

Joan M. Ridley, CFP™, CEPA, CBI

 

As a business owner, you are well positioned to create whatever you want in life. There is no one telling you what to do or how to do it. There is no one telling you what your life goals should be or how to achieve them. Business coach Steve Strauss says, “If you don’t have what you want in life, it’s because you don’t know what you want.” If you can articulate and feel what you want your life to look like after you leave your business, and are committed to that vision, you are at least 90% there. The rest is details. As an experienced business exit planner, it truly amazes me how many business owners cannot articulate what they really want to do after they leave their business.

You might say that you have no time to think about the future because you are so busy putting out fires every day. My response is that dreams are the fuel to get you where you want to go. Without them you will burn out. If ever we needed to dream, it is now when the picture might not seem so rosy. Your dreams need to come from your heart. They need to be felt and you need to be committed to making them a reality. All you need to do is to share your dreams with your trusted advisors. As an exit planner, it is my job, my privilege, to guide you to their fulfillment.

Let me give you an example of what I am talking about. One business owner, when asked what she envisioned herself doing when she was out of her business, shared her dream. Just to set the stage, she was in her mid- forties, and although a U.S. born citizen, her family was from Egypt.

She saw herself as someone who supported and promoted world peace. Establishing this school was how she planned to do it. When she said it, I could feel her commitment and her desire that was straight from the heart. That’s all she had to say. The rest was details. With a quality team of advisors in place she was on her way to making her dream a reality. Of course it takes more than waving a magic wand to make it happen. It does require considerable skill and expertise, and time. You still need quality tax planning, estate planning, a quality business valuation, top notch personal wealth advisory, business consulting to maximize your company’s value, and a skilled exit planner to design and manage the entire process. But, it all starts with the question “what do you want to do after you leave the business” and the right point person, called an exit planner, to really listen to your response.

So don’t ever forget your dreams. Stay focused on them. Those daily challenges that you are dealing with today are nothing more than a step that brings you closer to fulfillment of those dreams that inspired you get into business in the first place.

 

Joan M. Ridley is president of Business Wealth Solutions, a Dallas-based advisory firm that consults with business owners about how to successfully grow and leave their business. Visit our website at www.bwsllc.net. Call us today at 214.692.9192 for a complimentary meeting to learn how we can help you get where you want to go.

Copyright 2010 Joan M. Ridley