FROM FATHER TO SON
PLANTING THE SEED FOR THE NEXT GENERATION
GreenForest Nursery, Inc. was founded in 1983 by Dan Batson on family land outside of Perkinston, Mississippi. GreenForest Nursery is recognized as one of the most progressive innovative green industry businesses in the United States.
Dan’s son, Brad, joined the business in 2012. Based in Dallas, Brad has taken a lead role in sales for the western region and has started to get more involved on the financial side. He has shown an interest in taking over for Dan and Kathy in the future and continuing the GreenForest Nursery legacy.
“My expertise is in the nursery business, not exit planning. I knew there would be a lot of legalities and aspects involved. We chose PivotPoint to open our eyes to what we did not know.”
— Dan Batson, President & CEO
THE PIVOT
Dan has taken significant steps—from transparency to recognition of his team's value and reducing his involvement in day-to-day operations—to pave the way for Brad's eventual succession.
RESULTS
During the process, Dan realized the importance of a team approach. Together, we focused on the three legs of the stool: personal, business, and financial. In doing so, he was able to establish their key management team and implement a mentorship and training program.
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Dan says, he is “now mentally prepared to not become too emotionally invested" once he is no longer leading GreenForest Nursery.
Dan personally owned the real estate for GreenForest Nursery. At PivotPoint’s suggestion he formed an LLC for his real estate holdings and is now collecting rent from the business which creates residual income.
He has also engaged with PivotPoint’s human resource advisor to create incentive plans and a performance review process to give Brad more managerial control in the future.
CONCLUSION
Dan recommends that others in a similar position have a plan and think through details even before contacting an exit planner. He suggests business owners "need to be open-minded" throughout the process because the team will present ideas "you hadn’t thought about before."
Call PivotPoint or email Chris today at chris@pivotpointbizsolutions.com to talk about your succession or exit plan.
