This is the first installment of a new ongoing column in The Shelby Report. We’re calling it Crossroads, in recognition of the intersection between life and business, where all of us – especially independent grocers– truly live.
Each month, this column will highlight a moment where life and business collide and attempt to offer insight drawn from both sides of that divide. Some months, we’ll explore legal, accounting or financial considerations. Other months, we’ll focus on the very real human realities behind the balance sheets – the pressures, relationships and family dynamics that shape our businesses just as much as strategy or capital ever could.
This topic often is associated with succession planning and, by default, assumed to apply only to later-stage business owners and their families.
For that reason, we begin this series with a very different story – one centered on a business owner in his 30s, his wife and their young family. To learn more about them, attend this year’s NGA Show in Las Vegas, particularly the FMS session on Feb. 1.
Our story starts, as so many do, with an intelligent and insightful wife of a hardworking business owner. For years, she had supported her husband and their daughters while he built – from nothing – a group of stores that at the time numbered more than seven. (Spoiler alert: there are many more today.)
As he prepared to expand again, she asked him directly and passionately: “What happens to us if something happens to you?”
The hero of our story was wise enough to listen.
And wiser still, he chose to act.
His first step was to work with his advisors to create what might best be described as a pitch book, the kind we would expect to see if he were preparing to sell his company.
He had no intention of selling. But if something unexpected were to happen, how would his wife tell the story of the business? How would a buyer – no matter how well-intentioned – pay full value unless the details, systems culture and economics of the enterprise were clearly documented and explained?
In answering that question, he created something powerful.
That same pitch book became a tool not only for contingency planning but also for growth. It helped him communicate effectively with lenders as he continued to expand. It became a resource in recruiting executive talent – leaders who could take weight off his shoulders and allow him to spend more time where it mattered most – with his family.
But he didn’t stop there.
He also secured substantial life insurance, not only to ensure his family would be financially protected but to provide the business with the capital cushion it would need to withstand uncertainty, make a few mistakes and find its footing in his absence.
There is far more to this story than can be told in a single column. But it illustrates something fundamental: life and business are not separate pursuits. Insight often flows from one to the other. And perhaps most importantly, it reminds us of the value of listening – especially to our spouses.
These are the kinds of stories Crossroads will feature in the months ahead. We’ll hear different voices, experiences and perspectives. And we hope you’ll share stories and questions as well.
After all, the institutional knowledge that has sustained the independent grocer for generations is worth preserving and sharing. It remains one of the keys to a long, successful future for our industry.
Carey Berger is president of Business Service Resource Group.