Succession Ready Is Coming to LA: Here’s Why It Matters
I have spent the better part of three decades working with small business owners. First as a Babson College professor, then through the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program, and now through Succession Ready. And I keep encountering the same blind spot: owners who have spent years, sometimes decades, operating their businesses but spent almost no time thinking about what happens when they stop running them. Roughly 85% of small businesses have no succession plan and only about 20% of businesses listed for sale actually sell.
This is not a criticism as we all at times have a tendency to miss the forest for the trees. When you are managing payroll, serving customers, and solving problems daily, exit planning can be an abstract concept. It feels like a conversation for the future. The trouble is that “the future” often arrives sooner than you expect, and occasionally without warning. Being unprepared will cost you.
Many owners I work with assume their business is worth what they hope it is worth. I tell the story of an owner I met who swore his business was worth $12 million. When pressed on the source of his confidence, he replied “There are three partners and we each need $4 million to retire!” This kind of thinking is not only unrealistic, it can be hazardous to your future financial security.
To know what your business is worth, you need to evaluate it objectively based on the criteria used by buyers. Have you stress-tested your financials for a range of scenarios? Are your operations streamlined and well documented? Do you have a loyal and diverse customer base that will stick around even if you are not running the business? Is your technology up-to-date and secure? Finally, do you know which of your employees are critical to the success of the business and what motivates them?. These are the factors that determine the value of any business, and in fact whether it is even saleable.
These are the exact questions Succession Ready addresses.The program is five weeks of focused, practical work. You’ll start by identifying your personal goals for succession - the “why”. From there, we’ll look at the financial drivers of business value, the operational documentation that makes a business transitionable, the strategies that preserve company culture through a transition and retain key employees, and the marketing positioning that makes a business visible and attractive to qualified buyers.
What distinguishes theSuccession Ready curriculum is that it does not treat succession as a legal and financial checklist, but rather as your unique personal journey. Owners learn to see their business the way a buyer or successor would see it, often for the first time.
The 2026 Los Angeles cohort opens this fall. The program is free and is designed for owners who are within 1-2 years of a transition, whether they plan to sell, transfer to family, or pass the business to employees. If you have built something worth preserving, this is how you make sure it survives you.
Learn More & Apply Here