Summer 2020. 'I'm not going to continue like this,' I tell our commissioner. 'We can't do this alone anymore; we need to find a strategic partner.'
I am general manager of our wonderful family business, Westenburg Assurantiën. With 50 employees, we have been one of the 50 largest insurance intermediaries in the Netherlands for many years. The business is running well, but we face important choices if we want to continue to serve our customers well in the future.
Are we going to make the necessary but also high investments in a new IT structure? What is the core of our services and what things can we outsource? How can we better fill the HR and compliance (meeting laws and regulations) functions?
For months now, it has felt like playing chess on multiple chess boards. And I want to win on each chess board, but that's damn hard.
Future scenarios.
I may think we should look for a cooperation partner, but I am part of a family business. My brother is also on the board, and in addition, my sister and father (who had turned the business over to the children more than 12 years before) still like to watch. We have a close-knit family and such an important decision should not come between us.
My decision to look for a cooperation partner is not initially met with cheers. With the help of our commissioner, we enter the conversation within the family. How do we see the business now and in the future? What do we need to make that future a reality?
Then we establish multiple future scenarios: doing nothing, transferring a minority or majority stake, and finally selling the entire business. All scenarios we work out in detail. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each scenario? What do we all feel comfortable with and, just as important, what do we not feel comfortable with?
Time and rest
Along the way, we all figure out that full sale is the best solution. It gives us all a chance for a fresh start. My brother continues in the insurance industry, I choose to become an acquisition advisor and from my own experience advise and guide other entrepreneurs in buying, selling and family succession.
What lessons have I learned from this? First of all, communication is key! Despite the different opinions we had in the beginning, we continued to communicate with each other. We were open to each other's opinions and gave room for emotions.
Second, we took time and rest at the right times. We ended each discussion with a proposed next step where we weren't making a decision yet. Then everyone let it sink in and we came back to that next step at the beginning of the next discussion. Are we still behind the sales process and the next step? If so, we'll move on now. If not, let's go back to the content.
Sales process
All of this has led to us becoming even closer as a family. We feel that we really did the sales process together. I am proud of that and I carry that out every day in my advice to entrepreneurs who are now at the same point where I was in 2020: be proud now of what you have achieved tomorrow.
