What Can Our Long Standing Senior Clients Share with Us about Succession & Business in General?

What Can Our Long Standing Senior Clients Share with Us about Succession & Business in General?
We have just concluded our nation-wide presentation tour on ‘How to Sell or Buy a Practice Successfully Without using a Broker’. On one leg of this tour I was collecting my thoughts in my hotel when I overheard two couples starting to chat over a drink. They had never met each other, you know how people just strike up a conversation and spend the evening talking about all sorts of topics …. well that is what this scenario looked like. It was lovely to hear.

Typically, I don’t like to eavesdrop but the conversation was rather loud which made it a bit difficult not to, plus it quickly became evident what interesting lives these couples had and were living; you just couldn’t help but listen.

So, let me set the scene.

The older couple were probably in their late 70’s or even early 80’s. They lived in one of the wine districts in SA and had, until recently, owned their own vineyard. From the sounds of it, part of the business/vineyard had been sold off to a family member, whilst the balance had been purchased by an adjoining neighbour. The husband proudly outlined the activities that the family member was continuing in terms of their prior business as well as highlighting their entrepreneurial spirit as they discussed their early entry into the Chinese market with their wines. The elderly couple spoke of their love for travel and their renewed enthusiasm to see the world now that they had sold the business.

The other couple, who were probably 10 years their junior and in their late 60’s or early 70’s, grew lettuce not too far from Perth which supplied most of the major supermarket chains. They were yet to hit retirement age, hadn’t got the travel bug yet and commented more on how difficult it was to get time away from the farm for a break. They spoke about the various factors that influenced their business and its ongoing evolution, whilst joking that it was far easier to go down to the local shop and buy some of their own lettuce, rather than head down to the shed at the far end of the property to collect some of the freshly picked lettuce.

As they spoke openly about past events that had impacted their businesses, as well as the current and future trends and the likely drivers within their respective industries, it became very apparent what a wealth of knowledge these two couples were. Not only in terms of their chosen vocations, but also the many aspects that impacted upon business within Australia and beyond over the pas decades. This wealth of knowledge seems too good to loose.

It got me thinking. Firms often talk about running presentations or information nights for their clients about various topics and subject matters. Does your firm have a group of clients in a similar industry? Would some of the experiences of your current clients benefit others? Would their experiences within the business world be of interest to others? Would the way in which they exited out of their businesses provide a useful example to others?

Whilst our more senior clients have many years experience, it doesn’t necessarily mean that their knowledge and know how is obsolete. In fact, listening to these two couples, they were impressively current and forward thinking. Perhaps enlisting the involvement of your more senior clients, through information nights and the like, to share their business and succession experiences with other clients within your firm could be a real bonus to providing relevant and current information to your broader client base.

I could have listened for hours to the experiences of these two couples.