Take Your Daughter or Son to Work Day April 23rd

For the past 16 years, the fourth Thursday in April has seen hundreds of thousands of children across the U.S. leave the classroom to experience the workplaces and career options of their parents. NAWBO encourages you to show not only your children, but also the children of your employees what working in—and owning—a woman-owned business is all about.

Visit the Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Foundation’s web site to learn more, and to find out what else is going on in your community. Let’s help the next generation see that owning their own business is a desirable career goal, and inspire thousands of girls through showing them NAWBO role models.

Afterward, please share your experiences with us so that we can promote the creative NAWBO-driven activities that took place on this day. E-mail publications@nawbo.org to share your story or photos so that we can consider them for inclusion in an upcoming issue.

Taking Your Child to Work May Secure Your Business For the Future

It’s a widely known fact that about nine of every 10 companies are owned by families—but did you know that seven out of 10 of those companies won’t survive to the second generation of owners. With that, here are 10 tactics provided by Succession Strategies for preparing your business for the handoff:

1) Gather personal and estate information.
2) Prepare a business financial analysis.
3) Clarify family and business values, aligning interests of all stakeholders
4) Develop a business strategic plan.
5) Develop a financial strategy to ensure retirement security for owners and retain family wealth for future generations.
6) Analyze potential successors within the company.
7) Produce written guidelines for training and choosing successor candidates.
8) Develop accountability goals and task timelines involved in the succession process.
9) Track and document progress of advisors and stakeholders who have responsibilities within the succession plan.
10) Create and use an outside board of directors to provide a reality check for management.