It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to build your own business. When the time comes, you may like to keep it in the family. Having a succession plan in place will ensure that the legacy of your business will live on in accordance with your wishes. As you begin thinking about your options, you may come to the realization that your children aren’t yet ready to take over the business. This raises a number of additional questions: What will happen until my children are ready? What if they aren’t interested? What will I do if they aren’t?

There is a lot to think about when putting together a succession plan for a farm: Will it stay in the family or be sold? If it does stay in the family, will all or some of your children remain active? How long do you want to stay involved in the operations? The path to get where you want can be daunting. Luckily, there are certain steps that can be taken now to make the process easier when you are ready to transition. One step we suggest is to separate the farm land from the farming operations.

Over the past two months, we have been discussing questions to consider when entering into a joint venture or merger (see Part 1 and Part 2). Once you and your potential partner have aligned on your business philosophy and products or services, it’s time to start thinking of your employees.

The Indiana Commercial Court Pilot Project has now been up and running for 3 months, joining the 22 other states that have specialized commercial courts. The pilot, which is not to exceed three years, began on June 1, 2016, and has since been implemented in six courts throughout the state of Indiana.

If you’ve been going to the Venture Club of Indiana’s Innovation Showcase for the past few years, you will have noticed that there was a change in the process this year. One of the major changes we saw was the addition of a pre-screening to the selection process. Because of this, companies who made it through were able to pitch for five minutes rather than one.