Worksheet
Business Owner Continuity Check
Build a business continuity review file, then use it to see whether the next step is operating cleanup, succession planning, or a coordinated professional review.
Continuity review file
Build the owner-continuity map
Answer each section as if the owner could not work, sign, borrow, communicate, or make decisions for a period of time.
Owner dependency
How dependent is the business on the owner?
Start with whether the business can keep operating if the owner steps away.
Backup authority
Who can act if the owner cannot?
Authority matters before a long-term succession decision is even made.
Succession path
Is the handoff path defined?
Succession can mean sale, transfer, family handoff, employee handoff, management continuity, or wind-down.
Buy-sell or transfer terms
Are transfer rules current?
Buy-sell terms or single-owner instructions should match the real continuity problem.
Insurance support
Does insurance support continuity?
Coverage should match household, business overhead, key-person, and ownership-transfer risks.
Estate coordination
Does the business fit the estate plan?
The business may be a family asset, liquidity problem, tax issue, or operating burden.
Debt and guarantees
Could debt complicate the transition?
Personal guarantees, leases, collateral, and lender restrictions can follow the owner into the plan.
Records and access
Can the right people find what they need?
Continuity gets harder when documents, accounts, contacts, and instructions are scattered.
Continuity checkpoint board
Use this board to see which operating, authority, transfer, insurance, estate, debt, and records areas are still open.
Open
Owner dependency
Revenue, relationships, licensing, decisions, and daily operating work that may still depend on the owner.
Answer this section before relying on the continuity file.
Open
Backup authority
Who can sign, pay, borrow, manage, communicate, and make decisions if the owner cannot act.
Answer this section before relying on the continuity file.
Open
Succession path
Whether the business should be sold, transferred, inherited, managed by others, or wound down.
Answer this section before relying on the continuity file.
Open
Buy-sell terms
Ownership-transfer rules, trigger events, valuation method, buyer rules, payment terms, and funding.
Answer this section before relying on the continuity file.
Open
Insurance support
Life, disability, overhead, key-person, and other coverage tied to business and household risk.
Answer this section before relying on the continuity file.
Open
Estate coordination
How business ownership fits estate documents, family roles, liquidity, authority, and tax planning.
Answer this section before relying on the continuity file.
Open
Debt and guarantees
Loans, leases, collateral, covenants, lender consent, and personal guarantees that may affect transition.
Answer this section before relying on the continuity file.
Open
Records and access
Entity documents, insurance, debt records, account access, operating notes, and professional contacts.
Answer this section before relying on the continuity file.
- 1Answer owner dependency next.
- 2Use entity documents, insurance policies, debt records, account access notes, and professional contacts rather than memory alone.
- 3Pause legal-document, insurance, lender, ownership, or beneficiary changes until the review file points to a clear lane.
How to use this review file
Use this review before changing entity documents, insurance, ownership terms, lender arrangements, or estate instructions. The goal is a clearer business-continuity agenda.
1
Start with owner absence
Answer as if the owner could not work, sign, sell, borrow, communicate, or make decisions for a period of time.
2
Separate cleanup from coordination
The result sorts operating cleanup from succession, insurance, debt, estate, and professional-review questions.
3
Leave with a continuity agenda
Use the next actions to organize records, name decision-makers, and decide which review belongs first.
About this tool
What this helps you do
This review file checks whether the business could keep moving if the owner steps away, becomes disabled, dies, sells, or needs a backup operator.
Why continuity is broader than succession
A handoff plan can fail if authority, records, debt, insurance, estate documents, or operating roles are not coordinated.
How to interpret results
A lower score does not mean the business is failing. It means the next review needs more facts before the plan is relied on.
Limitations
This tool is educational only. It does not review legal documents, value a business, quote insurance, test lender consent, or replace legal, tax, insurance, lending, valuation, or financial advice.
Business continuity planning can involve state law, entity documents, insurance contracts, lender consent, valuation, taxes, estate planning, and family governance. Confirm those details with qualified professionals before changing documents or relying on the result.