Small- to medium-sized businesses are reasonably confident about the medium-term outlook, and most have managed to grow during the global financial crisis, but many remain underprepared to exit, a survey shows. A survey by accounting firm RSM Bird Cameron found more than half of SME respondents expect to exit by 2015, having put off exit plans during the GFC.
Succession Plus CEO Craig West is considered an expert in the field of Business Strategic Succession and Exit Planning and is a regular columnist for Your Wealth Magazine, Australia’s Independent Wealth Creation eMagazine. www.ywm.com.au
The great Australian dream has always been to own a home.
It goes back to Sir Robert Menzies’ famous ”forgotten people” speech of 1942 describing the emerging middle class as ”the strivers, the planners, the ambitious ones”. Menzies wanted to see us all achieve the dream and, after rising to just over 50 per cent in 1949, home ownership accelerated to 70 per cent, where it has stayed for the past four decades.
The growth of small business ownership followed and it is now a significant sector. We all know the mining and resources industry has had a lot to do with our economic strength, but what about ordinary Australians who make their way to work each day? What is their stake in the industry in which they work? How many own part of the company they help to build each day?
Share ownership has been in the news recently, with James Warburton from Channel Seven leaving to hopefully join Channel Ten. Warburton apparently turned his back on a share portfolio of about $5 million. Louise can’t understand it. ”Just think of the number of shoes you could get for that,” she snorts.
The point is, owning shares in the company we work for is a good thing. And, sure, it’s OK for the big bosses, but what about the others? Share ownership is a great way for everyone at work to feel part of it and share rewards. They stay longer and work harder and smarter. There’s no better example of this than the Clemenger organisation, now Australia’s most successful advertising group. Until recently, more than half its shares were owned by hundreds of its staff. Many have now retired with a handy nest egg. No wonder it was always hard to steal staff away from it.
My company, Mitchells, has always had a strong employee share ownership and when it was bought by a big international company, more than 60 per cent of employee shareholders became shareholders in the worldwide enterprise and Australians are the second-biggest shareholder in the company.
But it isn’t that easy to do in Australia. This week, Tony Smith, shadow parliamentary secretary for tax reform, argued that ”to unleash the next ownership and enterprise wave” we need to pull down the barriers to greatly expanded share ownership by employees. As he said: ”It would add a couple of cylinders to our economic engine.” We have regulatory barriers that are apparently just like the Berlin Wall, built by bureaucrats and control-freak regulators. We need some people-power here.
Harold Mitchell is the executive chairman of Mitchell Communication Group.
CHICAGO, IL— The Exit Planning Institute is proud to announce that Craig West recently earned the Certified Exit Planning Adviser (CEPA) designation after completing the Institute’s intensive CEPA program. Craig joins an exclusive group of fewer than 150 business advisors worldwide who have received this designation and only five Australians.
About the CEPA Program
The CEPA program was specifically designed for business advisors who work closely with owners of privately held companies. Using an executive MBA style format, the program is designed around a central case study and uses a combination of lectures, group discussions, case studies and individual exercises to introduce participants to concepts and to reinforce skills. To receive the CEPA designation, Craig completed a rigorous 5 day program that involved approximately 100 hours of pre-course study, 32 hours of class room instruction, and successful completion of a 3.5 hour proctored examination.
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