Who We Serve
Partnerships
Private and professional partnerships face some unique challenges in business, as they are built on a relational foundation that is usually more like family than not. While the partners may not get together for Christmas dinner, their relationship has more complexity than a typical employer-employee business, and this makes managing these dynamics crucial to an effective transition process.
Typical issues and questions that arise in these kinds of clients include:
- How do we effectively manage the movement of partners in (and out) of the partnership?
- What is the best way to manage the business so that potential partners are developed within?
- How do we preserve the value of the business, while allowing a departing partner to leave with their fair share of what they have built?
- What are some good mechanisms for conflict management and mitigation for partnerships?
- How do we get our partners to align and agree on a strategic direction, then work towards it?
- How do we balance the need in our partnership for working ON the business, as well as IN the business?
Family Business
Family business transitions is where Predictable Futures got its start, and we still lead the field with our proven processes to assist families in deciding how to move forward on transitioning ownership and leadership from the current owners. We work closely with lawyers and accountants – who are experts in the transactional requirements for such transitions – to ensure the goals of the family and the business are met, and that the value (and values) of the company are preserved throughout.
Because family-owned businesses have relational dynamics as well as business needs, the way transition happens in these kinds of enterprises is more complex. Since we live with the results in our families for a long time, it matters a great deal how things happen. This brings into focus the reason we take a holistic approach to transition planning. Ignoring the relational challenges doesn’t make them go away – the only safe way forward is to work through them. However, most families are not well-equipped to handle the potential conflict, do not have the expertise to know where the dangers lie, and are generally conflict averse. This is why Predictable Futures does what it does. We provide the navigation, the safe facilitation, the experience and expertise in the process so that risks are minimized and opportunities maximized.
Private Business
Most businesses served by Predictable Futures fall into the Private Business category (though there are some exceptions), and we pride ourselves in our focus on entrepreneurs and the unique challenges they face. Many of these are sole proprietorships, or businesses moving from one owner to another (which could be a partner, employee, family, or strategic buyer).
We have served companies in a wide variety of sectors: retail, farming, manufacturing, forestry, real estate, oil & gas, transportation, and health care to name a few.
The size of the companies we serve has ranged widely, from as small as $1M in annual revenue to hundreds of millions of revenue. Most of our clients have been in western Canada, but our work has taken us from Vancouver Island to Central Canada in recent years, and our goal is to go where the need is.
Get Valuable Advice
Aligning the family, ownership and the business is what we do. We can help you build a happy business family and a legacy you love.
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