Hand Over or Sell Your Businesses

Handing Over or Selling Your Business – Succession Planning

All business owners will sooner or later have to consider their exit. It doesn’t matter at what stage in life the owners are at, they should make plans now for either the sale of the business or for handing it over to the next generation.

Succession planning is an integral part of holistic planning. In the early stages of a business the plans may only be hypothetical, however they help the owners focus on and set direction.

Flor-Hanly provides succession planning services to both:

• Primary Producers
• Business Owners

Succession Planning for Primary Producers

Succession and retirement for primary producers is complex and emotional. The farming assets are very large and often low yielding. The owners typically live on the property and have to consider the possibility of relocating.

Many primary producers have very few off farm assets and often have farm debt. They face a difficult challenge in being fair and reasonable when deciding how to hand the farm over to farming children and provide for non farming children. There is a complex web of legal and taxation issues to be considered.

Flor-Hanly works with primary producers to help them navigate their way through succession. We:

• Facilitate the succession process;
• Assess the viability of the operation to determine if succession can take place;
• Work with all family members to determine their wishes;
• Help formulate tax effective strategies to achieve the family’s desired outcome;
• Encourage primary producers to consider and plan for succession well in advance.

Succession Planning for Businesses

All business owners should plan and develop their businesses with exiting in mind. For them there may not always be family members who wish to take over the business. The successors may instead be third parties or key staff.

Business owners often decide to sell a business for the wrong reasons, often lifestyle related. They may be extremely stressed, working very long days and do not have time off. Flor-Hanly works with business owners to help incorporate the lifestyle they want into the business. Doing this often results in the business becoming less reliant on the owner. Businesses that are profitable and not reliant on the owner are more valuable and easier to sell.

Flor-Hanly helps family businesses pass their business from one generation to the other. We help business owners assess the saleability of their business and make changes to their businesses to enhance its attractiveness and value to potential purchasers.

We encourage businesses to plan ahead and work with us well before planning to sell.

Contact our accounting team on (07) 4963 4800 or email to arrange a complimentary discussion about how we can work with you.