Toronto Star Article of May 12

An article in yesterday's Toronto Star caught my eye. Entitled Early succession planning is vital, the article talks about small family run businesses and the need to plan succession far in advance.
The couple intereviewd in the article developed a six year succession plan. The article goes on to talk about the latest report by CIBC on Small business. This report, that states that the bank's fastest growing self employed group are the +55 yr. olds, predicts that 500,000 owners of small businesses in Canda will retire in the next 5 years.
What will these people do? surely they will not all retire in the traditional sense of the word. No, they will likely do a host of things including mentoring, coaching and yes, starting a new business. In Best-Half sessions over half of the participants talk about wanting to start their own business. This is what gives them fulfillment and meaning in their lives. I think that their desire to retire is really a desire to generate some excitement and an element of risk in their lives - something they could no longer get from their existing business.
It will be up to the new owners to build in opportunities for fresh thinking, risk taking and fulfillment as a cure against boredom.
Often businesses get into trouble because the owners are bored and looking for something to get them charged up again. So they diversify into the wrong fields, buy companies that don't really fit into their long term plan or any number of other suicidal corporate missions.