The most valuable thing a business owner can give a transition is time.

You can know exactly when you want to retire and still be years away from a workable succession.

A 2026 Deloitte Private survey of 300 family business executives found that 85% considered strategic CEO succession planning critical to long-term success. 57% had established a plan, while only 23% were actively implementing one.

I understand the gap.

When you're running a business, succession has to compete with everything that needs attention today. It can easily become something you'll deal with three years from now, five years from now, or whenever retirement starts to feel close.

In my experience, owners tend to underestimate how much time a good transition can take.

I've seen that while working with business owners, thinking through succession in my own firm, and through one experience almost a decade ago that changed the way I think about the subject entirely.

A good friend approached me about potentially buying his business. He knew roughly when he wanted to retire and had ideas about how he wanted the transition to work. He hadn't yet worked through everything required to get there.

Then he became seriously ill.

We had about six months from the beginning of those conversations until he passed away. The window in which we could actually structure the transaction was closer to 30 to 45 days.

We were fortunate. We already knew each other well, and I understood enough about his business to step in. We got the transaction done.

Without that history, I don't think there would have been a transaction. The business and many of the client relationships could have simply disappeared.

That experience crystallized something for me: time determines how many options you still have.

Start with a self-inventory

Owners often begin thinking about succession at the transaction level. Buyers, valuation, deal terms, and timing naturally get a lot of attention.

I would start earlier.

Write down what you do today. Include the decisions that still come to you, the relationships that depend on you, and the responsibilities you've continued carrying because nobody else has taken them over.

Then write down what you want your role to look like three years from now, five years from now, and after you've stepped away.

The gap between those two lists tells you a lot about what succession has to solve.

I've had to do the same inventory in my own firm. It's one thing to have an idea of when you'd like your role to change. It's another to identify everything you're doing today and determine where each responsibility needs to go.

That exercise can also expose how far the transition reaches beyond the business itself.

For many owners, the company has been the family's primary income source, one of its largest assets, and the place where much of the owner's time and attention has gone for decades. A change in ownership can affect retirement income, taxes, estate decisions, investments, family responsibilities, and the people already advising you.

Those connections are easier to work through when you have time.

Every responsibility has to land somewhere

Putting today's role next to the future one tends to expose the real work. Everything the owner does today that won't remain on their desk has to move somewhere.

Some responsibilities may go to an acquiring company. Others may move to an existing management team, a child or other family member, or the next generation of leadership.

That transfer takes preparation.

People need time to develop. Roles may need to change. The organization may be missing capabilities that have never seemed missing because the owner has quietly filled the gap for years.

Finding that out several years before a transition gives you choices. Finding it out after a buyer is at the table gives you a problem.

A succession can look straightforward when viewed as an ownership change. The harder work is preparing the business to function when the person who built much of its structure is no longer doing the same job.

Build the right team early

Business owners usually know their businesses better than anyone else. They aren't expected to know every part of selling or transferring one.

Different parts of a transition require different expertise. An attorney who regularly handles business transactions has an important role. So does someone who understands the tax implications, the value of the company, and, when appropriate, how to identify potential buyers or partners.

The mistake is waiting until a transaction is already moving to assemble everyone.

Structure matters. Tax consequences can depend on decisions made well before closing. And the people advising on a transaction may have different roles and different incentives.

Particularly on the transaction side, people may be compensated when a deal gets done. The owner's objective is broader: getting the right deal done, with people and terms they can live with afterward.

I've been involved in situations that progressed quite a long way because the mechanics initially looked right. With more time and discovery, it became clear the fit wasn't there.

That time wasn't wasted. Better to learn that before the transaction than after it.

My advice is pretty simple. Kick the tires.

The highest price can still be the wrong transition

Owners understandably want to get full value for businesses they've spent years building, but sale price is only one part of the outcome.

The terms matter. The amount of time the owner remains involved matters. So do the buyer or successor, the future of employees and clients, and what the owner's life is supposed to look like once the deal is done.

A business built heavily around personal relationships may require a much longer handoff than one whose operations can transfer relatively easily. In some cases, remaining involved longer may improve the economics. In others, it may make the transaction less attractive to the owner.

Having enough time makes these decisions easier.

When the clock is running, walking away gets harder. Starting early gives you room to test the people, the structure, and the assumptions before any one path becomes difficult to reverse.

Waiting reduces your choices

When I was asked what I would tell the business owner who knows succession matters but still hasn't started, my answer was to think about the cost and risk of doing nothing versus starting something.

Starting can be as simple as taking inventory before you have a buyer, a fixed retirement date, or a finished transaction plan.

Understand what still depends on you today. Decide what you eventually want your role to become. Identify the responsibilities that will have to move before you get there.

That gives you time to develop people, involve the right advisors, test potential structures, and change course when something doesn't fit.

The earlier you start, the more of those decisions you still get to make on your own terms.