As much as people generally look forward to retirement, it can be a terrifying prospect for many business owners. Creating a contingency plan for your business can help you begin planning your future without the pressure of making big decisions. A contingency plan is a set of instructions for a business to follow should an unexpected event disrupt normal operations. These events could include a natural disaster, the rise of new competition, or – as we’ll focus on here – you (the owner) leaving the company.

Most people view contingency plans as “backup plans.” Yet, many don’t realize how contingency planning can help an owner prepare to sell their business.

How contingency planning prepares you emotionally to sell
1. It helps you accept leaving – Simply acknowledging that you’ll eventually leave your business can be a grueling first step in becoming emotionally prepared to sell. Creating a contingency plan requires you to think about how your business will operate without you. Writing down these plans is often the first time owners realize their business could, in fact, survive without them. This usually makes them much more positive about the prospect of leaving someday.

2. It doesn’t require big decisions – Making decisions is stressful, especially when they concern selling and leaving the company you worked so hard to build. With a contingency plan, you aren’t actually making any real decisions. Rather, you’re preparing for hypothetical circumstances, like how your company would continue if you suddenly died. Psychologically, owners often find this feels much more controlled than planning for an expected departure from their company.

3. It prepares you for exit planning – You could almost call exit planning the fraternal twin of contingency planning. Contingency planning involves planning for the unexpected, whereas exit planning involves the expected. Despite that tiny difference, the two plans have a lot of parallels, as both deal with similar elements. So, when that day comes that you actually “plan” to leave your company, you can draw from your contingency plan to help formulate your exit strategy.

4. It protects your vision for your company – You’ve worked tirelessly to build a culture within your company, and you don’t want that vision to die with you. Simply put, if you don’t develop a plan, someone else is going to do all the planning for you when you’re gone.

You don’t need to plan the rest of your life tomorrow. These things take time. However, creating a contingency plan can prepare you emotionally for your eventual departure, and create a vision for your company’s continued success.


Rock LaManna helps printing owners and CEOs use their company financials to prioritize and choose the proper strategic path. He is President and CEO of the LaManna Alliance, and provides guidance on how to grow a printing business, merge with a synergistic partner, make a strategic acquisition, or create a succession plan. Rock can be reached by email at [email protected].