Savvy owners prep for generational shift
NEW YORK — The plan was for Greg Goodman to sell his auto supply store and retire about the time he turned 60. Then Plan B came along — his son Chandler decided to join and eventually take over the family business instead of becoming an architect.
Goodman, now 54, is focusing on building his Alta Mere franchise in Oklahoma City rather than getting it ready for sale. He’s also mentoring his son, although Chandler won’t graduate from college for another two years.
“I make sure he’s involved in every aspect of this business moving forward,” Greg Goodman says. “I let him in on everything and every decision I make.”
As small-business owners contemplate retirement, many are thrilled to have the chance to teach their children or other relatives how to run their companies. There’s plenty of opportunity for that to happen — the government estimates that nearly a fifth of U.S. companies are family owned. At some businesses, especially those that have been in a family for generations, children start learning some of the basics while on vacation from school.
But owners looking to pass a company to their children or other younger relatives find themselves doing much more intensive training, including their heirs apparent in key decisions and entrusting them with major projects. The savviest owners learn some things themselves — they listen to and embrace the different ideas and perspectives their children bring.
Sometimes members of the next generation already have a business background and need to adapt what they know to the specifics of the family company. Alison Tocci, 61, has been working with her nephew, Bryan Sawyer, so he’ll be ready to take over the family Bull Run restaurant when she retires. Sawyer left his job at an accounting firm in 2010 to help Tocci turn around the thenstruggling restaurant in Shirley, Mass., that she had recently bought from a relative.
Bull Run, founded in 1946 by Tocci’s father, has quadrupled its revenue since she took it over, and she wants Sawyer to keep it on its trajectory. So while he takes part in day-to-day operations and weekly meetings,