Ep. 232: Planning for the Unplanned – Every Business Owner Needs a Crisis Plan
Here at Nolan Consulting Group, we've unfortunately seen the reasons why crisis planning should be a nonnegotiable for every business owner regardless of age or company size. Today on Out of the Hourglass, we're talking with Brian Nolan about the importance of these crisis plans, why we find them to be so critical, how to effectively put one together, and the role that it plays in a hopefully unnecessary, unexpected situation. Should you need templates or resources on how to create a crisis plan of your own, please reach out. We are more than happy to share.
Molly:Let's dive in here. Brian, we're gonna talk about crisis planning today. And this is a topic that we have most definitely hit on in podcast conversations. It's been part of a succession planning. It's been part been part of fast growth planning, part of the building value discussions.
Molly:But we've never actually done an episode right on crisis planning itself. And quite frankly, that's long overdue.
Brian:Well, but it is. It's somehow kinda like safety. It's always last, and it's it's not important till it is.
Molly:Yeah.
Brian:And, if you live long enough like I am, you you see a lot.
Molly:What was it that initially brought crisis planning to the forefront for you as a business owner to then also begin coaching on?
Brian:Well, so I started well, let me think about this one. It's going back probably four or five years ago when I started, then what I called a a Finish Strong peer group. And we then did a a boot camp succession planning. I did a whole lot of research on what's involved in succession planning, and I started a peer group. And so I had everybody on the peer group write a crisis plan.
Brian:These are people late fifties to mid sixties. And I'll tell you, from a from a time standpoint, everybody finished their crisis plan, and then I had one member, die.
Molly:Within that group?
Brian:Yeah. Yeah. Everybody probably has heard this this story before, but it's worth saying again, Jeff Clifton, of classic paper and painting. And he has a partner, good good friend of mine, John McFarlane. And, Jeff was 62 years old.
Brian:This is, like, three or four years ago now. And Jeff, at his desk suddenly died, and they found him under his desk. And, John called me, and, John didn't even know that that he had written this crisis plan. It it was that fresh. And so together, I read the the crisis plan, both of us in tears, and it sort of paved the way for John, who was, I guess, a 49% owner to take over and where where the passwords were and how to access QuickBooks and various things like that. And then I've, unfortunately, had the opportunity to use it again. I guess we're talking about two
Molly:couple times now.
Brian:Yeah. Yeah. A couple times now. And, yeah, everybody knows Jeremy Brooks died, I guess, eight eighteen months ago. But before he died, he, he fell in his parking lot, and, he had he had brain cancer.
Molly:That was a hard one. And but fortunately, he was everyone who knows Jeremy, love him love love Jeremy. Stubborn. He was a stubborn man.
Brian:I said, he was probably my toughest person to to, coach. He he made me better, because I had to really show up and
Molly:He was loyal.
Brian:He was a he was loyal, but he was a curmudgeon, so I'd get him out of it. Anyway, his crisis plan called for a an advisory board. And and what but while he was alive, but not yet dead, but not yet passed away. And I guess it was four months later when he passed away. And that's what that's what's important here. Crisis plan is not just when you die . When you can have an accident and you're not able. So what prompted this podcast was last week, another member whose name I'll leave out for his his own privacy and his family's late at night. He fell down the stairs and all the way down, I don't know, 16 stairs into a ceramic floor and fractured his skull, and it had bleeding in his skull. And and his son called me the next day.
Brian:It was, like, early and didn't even know where where the password was to his phone. So I quickly sent sent him the the plan crisis plan, actually, I'm going to see him tomorrow. The person who fell is awake and cognizant, but they're still not sure what what the long term is gonna be there. So I I I tell I tell as many people as I can. I don't know of a more important system to put in place first than this crisis plan, not only for yourself, but for your people who who get paid by you and have payroll and you know?
Molly:Well, that's a big thing for me is that there's this connotation around crisis planning attached to being of an older age. Being in your 50s, 60s, maybe early 70s, still running an organization. So those there's a lot of owners who are young and think I'm young and healthy. Why do I need to do this now? I'm not worried about a crisis plan. But you are responsible for the lives of your employees and their well-being.
Brian:And the more responsibility you take on, the more responsible you are.
Molly:Right.
Brian:So does does your spouse really wanna jump in and take over the business? Mhmm. Do they? I could tell you in Jeremy Brooks' case, no. Kelly did not want to make you know, she she's an owner now. Mhmm. But well, so she since has sold the business to Corey. A great story. Great ending there. So we're talking about, like, you have a last will and testament for your life. Mhmm. Do you have a last will and testament for your business?
Molly:Right. So the goal of this podcast is not to scare listeners.
Brian:Maybe it is.
Molly:Well, maybe it is. But it's to kind of bring the reality of situations that you, unfortunately, and our team here has lived through and seen the effects of it, both not having a plan in place, but then also having one and how different that those two experiences are. So let's break down take a few minutes here just to break down kind of the key components of an effective crisis plan. Brian, what should be a part of this?
Brian:So let me start with, it's a letter, it's a letter, to your family and employees that if something should happen to you, here are my desires.
Molly:In broad terms? In broad terms. Like, for instance, I I want these values to to live on no matter no matter what you do. Consider these values because they are the rocks that we wanna surround the legacy of of the business with. Here's who I'd like to be to put in charge. We did that with Brooks. It was it it was contentious until we read it in a letter. What what advisers do I want? I wanna immediately call an advisory council, and, you list out the four to six people you'd like in that council. And in some cases, so it's, the lawyer, the accountant, the business coach, maybe a banker, and a couple dear friends that would do anything for you. It it would speak about the the ownership and the desire, to sell the business because I know that my spouse is not interested in running it. Mhmm. And then, most importantly, how to access everything in my world.
Molly:Yeah. This most recent example of not even knowing how to access somebody's phone.
Brian:So, I mean, how big is that? Like, and how how many of you listening to to this podcast Yeah. Know that your spouse or your friend or partner has access to your phone Yeah. To even know who's calling you and those type things.
Molly:Think about how many actual phone numbers do you know on the top of your head.
Brian:Right.
Molly:I mean, we have become so dependent upon technology in these devices. And we always say it, you you will love technology until we hate it when it's not working for us. And in this situation, we we have kind of set ourselves up for technology to become a barrier when we need it the most.
Brian:That's right. That's right. So we have a outline of who's my attorney, who's my accountant, where are my documents located, where are my passwords, what's future ownership, what are my insurance contacts, management team, advisory council. All documents include last where's my last will and testament, trust documents, life insurance policies, property deeds, vehicle titles, bank account information, investment account information, funeral and burial instructions, medical directives, you know, all these documents, social Social Security card, birth and marriage certificate. A lot of times, the last will and testament has this.
Brian:What I'm suggesting is a is a letter
Molly:Mhmm.
Brian:That in three or four pages. I've told you before, it's located downstairs in a basement Mhmm. In a drawer. I have I have my my passcodes. I think I've given you the password to the passcodes.
Molly:You have.
Brian:So you can access it.
Molly:I know where that is.
Brian:You know where that is.
Molly:I do.
Brian:Because mom does not. So something happens to me. Yeah. And I think about, like, the life that I leave lead right now. It's I'm all over the place. You know? As I'm flying coming back from Portugal and flying 35,000 feet of over the ocean, I'm like, anything could happen. Yeah. And, what would happen?
Brian:You know, you want world to continue on and and to go like, wow. He took care of things for us.
Molly:Well, is a great example. I mean, as somebody who is involved in a lot of things, how so you you've obviously written a crisis plan for yourself. You've encouraged other business owners to do so. But how often should we be reviewing this and looking at it? Because things can change in a year.
Brian:Oh, it does. It does. So I'd make this, the annual activity, if not more frequently. Obviously, things things change. Mhmm.
Brian:But I'd make this an annual piece where as you enter enter the new year like in business, do your budgeting. I would include this into your business planning process because your people need to know what what to do. So after after you finish it, you need you you wanna send it to to your key people, your lawyer and accountant and those types of things.
Molly:Actually sending them the file?
Brian:Totally.
Molly:Okay.
Brian:Totally. Yep.
Molly:And then who should somebody, like, in your close world know, you know, where it also lives? Like, do they they could, you know they're not waiting on an attorney or a lawyer to to be able to find it and and locate it?
Brian:Yep. Let them know that. I think that's really key. So they immediately know who to call. Yeah.
Brian:Something happens, like, let's activate the plan. You know, we're human beings in a very human world where where things happen, and we live in this sometimes la la land where we never think it's gonna happen to us.
Molly:Right.
Brian:And, I mean, if Paul Cook was on this, we'd be we'd be including safety in this conversation and the importance of being, you know, safety certified, safety aware in your programs, because he had a terrible thing happen in his business and as over a decade now ago, and he's so he's on a mission, like, make safety important.
Molly:He would include that in his crisis letter because he want that's important to him that continues on as a value within the business.
Brian:Yes. That that passion. And, like, you know, you and Colin know that my passion for family business, never damaging a family. And if ever there's issues where the business is starting to damage a family, someone's gotta step out.
Brian:Yeah. Because the the business and for all you family businesses out there, I get involved when there's, an emergency now. I do a lot of family business coaching. I need you to pull back and make sure you have family covenants in place, how we treat each other, and to understand that the family is, the top purpose, and the business serves it. So the crisis plan is a way to make sure the family doesn't become doesn't start fighting over things like ownership, discussions, and things like that, that that's all all documented. So that's all. We just wanted to do a quick podcast to to put this in your in your not in your front windshield That it's it's addressed.
Molly:Yep. We have lots of, you know, templates and resources on this topic. You know, to those who who work with us, they are available in the Summit library. We're happy to send them to you. If you do not work with us, but this is something that you've made priority, please reach out molly@nolancg.com
Molly:I'm happy to share, some templates to help you get started. At the end of the day, we just we want more businesses and more people to have the tools that they need so that you're not dealing with how do we handle this when you're also handling grief or trying to get somebody healthy again.
Brian:Yeah. Yep. And I'll make a plug. My coaching passion these days is succession planning likely because I'm I'm now seven years out from from stepping down, seven years is the day is the years that they give to begin that plan. And so we have a pretty comprehensive succession planning process, the first step of which is crisis planning. And then it goes into other elements of how are you gonna sell it, pass it off, and what that what that looks like. And then what's your second mountain, your second purpose in life?
Molly:But if you are the ripe age of 27 years old and you think the world is, you know, forever and, you you know, nothing can harm you. If you have employees, you have to do a crisis letter.
Brian:You have to. Not optional, guys.
Molly:This is this is not age optional. Yeah. This is do I have a business? Do I have people who depend on me?
Brian:You know, and when you're writing it, like it goes back and forth. I get involved and there are drafts of it. So what what we always do is we always say as of because it could happen in the process. Something happens during it. So Yeah.
Molly:As of. So if you're if you're taking what we talk about today and you take some templates, first step is to document this as of today's date.
Brian:Yeah. Thanks, Molly for bringing this to the surface and forefront.
Molly:Yeah. Absolutely.
Molly - Outro:Thanks for listening to this episode. Out of the Hourglass is recorded and produced by the team at Nolan Consulting Group, a nationwide business coaching and consulting firm with coaches located throughout the country. Have a question, comment, or idea for future episodes? We'd love to hear from you. Visit our website, www.nolancg.com.
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