Four years ago, I can remember having a call with my mother, Cassandra “Cassy” Brayboy about her retirement. I asked her what she was going to do when she couldn’t or wouldn’t want to do the work of an electrician anymore. My mother at the time was in her late 50’s and of course being the strong woman that she is, she surely never thought about the day that would happen. Her response to me was… “I’m a BEAST”! No seriously, I asked her again, mom, you surely can’t just drop the mic when you’re done, you have people working for you.

January of 2020, not long before the world was bracing for a full shutdown due to Covid 19, I resigned from my role and joined my family business to help scale and grow the business to get my mother into retirement. This was not an easy decision, I loved what I was doing. I also knew that my family needed the skill set that I had to get my mother to retirement. Now, four years later, our business has grown five - times, became the only woman, minority owned certified electrical contractor in the state of South Carolina, diversified our portfolio to new industries and my mother is now 40% closer to a true retirement than ever before.

The reality is, that many small family businesses don’t have a succession plan. Much like my mother, many businesses are not planning for their future because they are so busy working in their business rather than on their business. Being a participant of the Minority Business Accelerator program that the Greenville Chamber facilitates, helped me to understand the importance of being the CEO of a business is greater than the day to day execution of tasks.

Strategic planning for the future is one of the most important roles that we have. Securing the future of our investment is so important regardless of what you decide to do with your business. Selling it, Scaling it, or operating a lifestyle business requires the same school of thought, protecting your asset at all cost. For those of you that have not thought about what the next steps are for you and your business, please take the time to plans for the future. Today, my family is excited about the future of our family business. The foundation that my mother built for over 20 years, now is starting to look more and more like the house she envisioned it to be.

 - Ebony Sullivan, CEO of Cassy Electric

Click here to watch Cassy Electric's CEO Ebony Sullivan and the Greenville Chamber's Elvia Pacheco on Your Carolina.

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