When should you start planning for someone else to lead the business you built? On Executive Connect, BFG Financial Advisors founder Eric Brotman tells host Melissa Aarskaug why that conversation belongs on the calendar well before a founder is ready to step away.
Drawing on more than three decades of building and transitioning an advisory practice, Eric explains the difference between a growth plan and an exit plan. A growth plan helps you decide where the business is going. An exit plan asks who will carry it forward and what they’ll need to do it well. The earlier you ask those questions, the more time you have to develop leaders, give them real responsibility, and create a path to ownership.
Eric compares succession to a relay race. Passing the baton starts long before the handoff. In the interview, he shares how mentorship, apprenticeship, and gradual ownership transitions can prepare the next generation to lead. He also discusses what founders can do now, even if they’re years away from stepping down.