Building With the End in Mind: A Complete Succession Planning Guide for Professional Service Owners

Professional Services is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the United States, spanning fields such as: Technology Consulting Healthcare Services Financial Advisory / Wealth Management Legal Services Tax Professionals Veterinary Care Environmental & Sustainability Consulting These and many other disciplines power our economy and help people live better, more productive lives. Most Professional Service Providers build successful careers but short-lived businesses. Few take the intentional steps required to create a multi-owner, multi-generational firm—one that grows in value, deepens client relationships, and carries their vision forward. A succession plan is not a sale of your business. It is a professional and gradual transfer of ownership and leadership over ten to twenty years, if started early enough—a process that blends strategy, development, mentorship, finance, governance, and stewardship. It is how you build something that outlives you. In Building With the End in Mind, you'll learn the practical mechanics of succession planning through 50 concise but hard-hitting lessons, designed to help you build a profitable, valuable, investable, growing, and durable business—one that can one day work for you. This book is written for current owners, founders, and first-generation (G1) Professional Service Providers, and for the legal, tax, valuation, and banking professionals who support them. A separate but companion volume—Acquiring Your Future Through a Succession Plan—is written for next-generation prospective owners, the G2s and G3s who will carry your firm forward. Drawing on decades of experience as the leading succession-planning expert in the professional services space, former securities regulator, M&A specialist, magazine columnist, and attorney, David Grau Sr., JD, delivers a proven blueprint that will shape your business, your legacy, and your future. (BRONZE MEDALIST - THE GLOBAL BOOK AWARDS / BUSINESS MANAGEMENT)