Business owners typically have many goals for their business. They are likely to fall into long term, short term, intermediate term, and undefined term categories. They write them down in their notebooks and they look at them or not as time goes by. Some goals get met and others forgotten. Unfortunately the ones that get met are often those that are urgent – while those left behind are the ones that are really important to the success of the organization.

This is where small business coaches earn their money. Small business coaches are masters at asking questions – especially those that uncover the situation as it is today, what’s important to the owners of the company, and what’s possible to achieve given the desires and capabilities of all involved. They help their clients prioritize their planning so the important goals are considered first!.

Their objective, and that of the business owners, is to set priorities that will insure the accomplishment of shared goals. Shared goals for the future of the enterprise and for those involved. Small business coaches understand that the questions they ask and wait patiently for the answers to not only help in achieving consensus among the individuals concerned, they also help uncover differences in individual desires.

When asking these questions of the senior generation owners, their successors, key personnel, and heirs – they come away with the picture the decision makers and their professional advisors need in order to take the appropriate actions and take them in the order of their importance to their client.

Is it important to the owners to assure the continuation of the business in the next generation? How important is it, or is it important at all that there is a business opportunity here for the next generation? If there are successors or potential successors working in the business now is it important to you to reward their contribution in some way – beyond what they are getting paid for the job they are doing today?

The objective of these questions and all the follow up questions that inevitably result is to gauge how the business owners want to treat their next generation – whether family members or not. Most successful businesses have their resources tied up in the business – in the bricks, trucks, etc. and the financial security of the senior generation depends on the successful continuation of the organization. If the company’s continuation is not important to the owners or the successors are not interested – other options will have to be considered.

Is it important to the present owners to maximize their income from the business now? Or if they are retired or about to retire is it important to make sure that their retirement income from the business is secure? What about the education costs of the owners or successors children and/or grandchildren – is that important? Can any numbers, their accountants and life insurance agents love numbers, be attached to any of these concerns and goals?

What’s important when it comes to estate transfer costs and taxes? Small business coaches must ask these questions, whether or not they understand the implications of the answers they receive. Later when they discuss what they’ve learned with the advisors on behalf of the business owners – the answers will be important.

For example are documents in place to assure the orderly transfer of assets to the next generation? Does the business owner understand the terms and conditions? Have steps been taken to lower the combined estate settlement costs as much as possible?

Have they considered these potential costs and their possible impact on the business should death occur far into the future when the business is many times larger than it is today. Since it is the objective of the business to grow and since the successors are involved in that growth – has any thought been given to reducing, to the extent possible, the future growth of the business in the estate’s of the senior generation owners?

Small business coaches are well positioned to ask these questions and all those that occur naturally – based on the answers given.

Business owners who have honestly articulated what’s important, their business coach who has helped them through this often difficult and time consuming process, and their traditional advisors can work together to make sure that the concerns and goals of all those involved are prioritized and acted upon.