By:  Elizabeth Galewski

When entrepreneurs first start their businesses, they know success will require a lot of work, but they never intend for their business to rule every minute of their lives. Most entrepreneurs dream of enjoying the fruits of their labor instead.

Innovative consulting firm Break Free From Your Business helps business owners take back their lives. Founder Cloette Zager came up with the idea when she tried to go on vacation for a weekend and found it nearly impossible to break away from work emergencies.

How Zager Got The Inspiration For Break Free From Your Business

Zager tried to steal away for a weekend convention to no avail. “I kept having to take urgent work phone calls,” she remembers. “As a result, I barely got to enjoy the convention experience I had paid for.”

This frustrating experience gave her a brilliant idea for a new business, however. “Many business owners think they’re going to get away from it all only for the phone to ring,” Zager says.

She had already started a second business, FranGuardian, that helps franchise owners plan for emergencies by building a file of critical information others can use to keep the business running in their absence. Since her team was already documenting her clients’ approach in detail and developing the relevant training, they were basically learning how to run these companies themselves. So why not provide temporary management? 

“A temporary manager could answer phones, respond to emails, and take care of things like payroll so that a vacation could truly be work-free,” Zager says.

Accordingly, Break Free From Your Business provides temporary management assistance not only for franchises but also for independent businesses of all kinds. It also empowers owners and managers to delegate their responsibilities to virtual assistants.

But that’s not all. By gathering this key information about business operations, Break Free From Your Business lays the groundwork for succession planning.

Laying The Groundwork For The Future

The documentation that Zager and her team develop for entrepreneurs can ease their exit from the company. “Many business owners are thinking about selling their company or passing it on to their kids,” she says. “Having a clear and detailed succession plan in place increases the business’s value and gives a buyer the reassurance they need to make an offer fast. It also smooths out the transition.”

Again, Zager gained this insight through her own personal experience. When one of her fellow Mr. Electric franchise owners passed away unexpectedly, his widow, who worked as the office manager, could not access the payroll system.

“Paychecks to employees failed to go out, so the employees quit,” Zager recalls. “Both people had put a lot of time and resources into this business that was now worthless. This was a great tragedy. It also made me reflect on my own situation. If I were an employee, I wouldn’t want to lose my job just because my boss got hit by a car.”

Indeed, she realized that employees would expect their bosses to have an emergency plan, yet she didn’t have one herself.

“I didn’t even know where to begin,” she says. “There’s so much knowledge that would need to be passed along, and our processes changed quite often since it was still a young company.”

She was daunted by the idea of creating a succession plan. Yet she knew it was the right thing to do — even the expected thing to do. “How could I make it possible? And how could I make it easy?” she remembers asking herself.

Having answered those questions successfully for her own business, Zager decided to help others do the same. That’s why succession planning is one of Break Free From Your Business’s main services.

How Break Free From Your Business Helps With Succession Planning

Break Free From Your Business helps business owners craft a practical and legally binding strategy that helps their businesses survive.

“It’s impossible to record 100 percent of a business owner’s knowledge,” Zager says. “We focus on capturing the essential business functions and the owners’ intentions.”

Break Free From Your Business’s process also identifies a series of people who can step in if necessary. According to Zager, having a fallback manager who is outside of the company — as those Break Free From Your Business can provide — is ideal.

“Our managers can be contractually bound to make the best effort possible in line with the documented intentions,” Zager explains. “They are also covered by insurance so that someone could sue if they didn’t. As a result, the family or inheritors of the deceased have financial protection for the business value without the added stress of trying to decide what to do with the business right away. This is an improvement to the traditional approach of relying on friends, family, and employees, who cannot be held accountable quite as easily.”

Moreover, without an external fallback manager, someone on the existing team could be forced to carry double the responsibilities. “Running a business is an enormous responsibility,” Zager says. “Talk about a huge burden to place on someone’s shoulders.”

Take Back Your Life

Break Free From Your Business not only gives you back your present but also cares for your future. Zager has even written a book, “MAX: The Ultimate Guide to Maximizing Results,” to help entrepreneurs crack the code of business and life, achieving their fullest potential.

“You deserve to live your best life,” Zager says. “You should not feel chained or stuck to your business. It should not be something you are forced to do to make ends meet. And we know breaking free is possible.”

Published by Charlie N.