If you’re a business owner who is thinking about retirement, then you may be required to restructure your business in order to help it to cope with the changes that your lack of presence will result in.
If you fully intend on keeping your business going at full capacity, then restructuring is necessary, so where do you start?
4 things to think about when restructuring your business for transition into retirement
The transitional process for retirement where you are still partially involved in your business can be referred to as Half-Retirement™. This is an essential stage in the retirement process where the objective is to begin to spend more time away from your company and on the things that you enjoy!
What is the current business structure?
First of all, you need to assess your current business situation. Who are the stakeholders in your business? How do you minimize the impact of your transition into retirement on them?
When looking at your business structure, direct your focus to the activities that you directly work on. What would not get done if you weren’t around? Who can you trust to make the decisions when you aren’t there?
These are questions that need answering.
It may help to keep a journal during this stage so that you can identify the tasks that you are part of within your business. From this information, you can then begin to envision ways that you can have your tasks covered by others.
Identifying skill gaps
Ask yourself this question: Will your absence leave a skill gap that isn’t covered by any of your existing members of staff?
If there is, then you need to consider your options for removing this problem. This could include promoting or training an existing member of your team either internally or externally or hiring a new person who already has the skill that you are trying to cover.
Failure to close skill gaps can result in confusion and bad decision making in your absence, so it always makes sense to be prepared. Think about what you bring to the table and find someone that matches what you are looking for so you can be confident that all of your boxes are ticked.
Handing over your basic admin roles
Administration is an essential part to any business owner’s full-time day. Most tasks that it includes are often seen as laborious and time-consuming.
If you are looking to Half-Retire®, then you need to consider your time to be more valuable than this by removing simple jobs from your to-do list and focusing on tasks that you are essential for only.
Give your pile on unchronologically ordered receipts to accounts in a plastic wallet. Tell the receptionist to organize your appointments and diary and stay a-tuned to only the essentials.
Making a plan to handover the rest of your work
When you put your Half-Retirement™ plan into play, you must always look for opportunities for people that can take the reins for tasks that you complete on a day to day basis.
The more specialist the work that you are handing over, the more responsibility you are trusting your staff with. This may result in you having to create positions, promote and give pay raises to your staff.
At the end of the day, they need to stay happy and motivated so that eventually they can run your entire business for you. To avoid issues, you should consider the potential cost and strategy for this in advance.
You may even want to get the opinion of your plans from the staff members that it affects and begin negotiating with them on what they would accept for such a position of responsibility or extra work. Look before you leap and you will be able to make more informed decisions which means your plans will be more likely to come into fruition.
Hiring a replacement
You may find that you struggle to cover everything that you do with existing resources. Your business could fall short in various areas without your input and you might be worried about the capabilities of your team members to manage alone.
If this is the case, you may want to consider outsourcing a new senior manager or director to fill your shoes. This person is likely to be more expensive than your average joe, but the right person will get the job done flawlessly and with a lot of attention to detail.
Hunting for someone who can take the heat like you will be no easy task, but they are out there! You can try various methods to track them down including:
- Recruiters
- Job and CV websites
- Agencies
- Networking events
Finding a replacement for yourself is not a process that you can rush, so take the time to really get to know your candidates before you decide to pile on the responsibility. You need to make sure that they are both comfortable and capable and you will be too!
If you think about all of these things and cover all of your bases before you decide to start spending less time in the office, then you are less likely to encounter problems. Your people will look after your business in your absence and eventually, you will only have to pop your head in when you are really needed!
After this stage is complete, you can relax and feel confident that everything will be taken care of whilst you are enjoying some well-earned time off with the family. Learn more about what is involved in the Half-Retirement™ process by getting in touch today.
