When contemplating your practice succession, it is essential to consider the potential risks in your business and how your successor will view them.
An interesting consideration for practitioners is the use of mobile phone numbers and personal email correspondence within your business.
Mobile Phone Numbers - Suppose your mobile number is known to clients and used to contact you directly. In that case, your mobile number may need to be relinquished as part of your succession - particularly if an external third party is acquiring your practice.
A potential buyer will want to control all forms of communication with clients. If a principal/partner’s mobile number is used within the practice, the mobile number may become a required item in a sale agreement. You will obviously know if your mobile is known to clients.
Given how many of us have embedded our mobile numbers into our lives, this might pose issues and require time to unravel. If this is an issue for you, it is best to get ahead and take the appropriate action.
It may be simpler to introduce your clients to a business-only mobile number. Introducing a new mobile number to your personal contacts is much easier when you control all aspects of your mobile phone.
This may seem a somewhat trivial issue, but if not addressed where it is required to be addressed, it can become an inconvenient issue.
Personal Email - Suppose you have a personal email account or have received personal email correspondence over the years captured within your business systems. In that case, you might want to take the opportunity to cleanse your business systems.
Once your business is sold, likely, you will no longer have control over your domain(s) and network. Removing such correspondence from your systems may be appropriate before any succession if you have personal correspondence on your systems.
Taking the time to cleanse any personal email accounts and correspondence while you control your systems may simplify matters as you approach your succession.