Over the 50 years Fred Beans has been in the car business, he built a 31-dealership empire on the East Coast.
And his only regret is waiting too long to start succession planning.
"If I had it to do all over again and I knew our business was going to be this successful, the biggest thing is: how do you pass this on?" Fred said on a recent episode of Daily Dealer Live. "I wish we'd done it sooner.”
Why it matters: Without a clear succession plan, even the most successful family-run operations risk unraveling. The passing or retirement of a founder often triggers uncertainty among family members, executives, employees, and OEM partners, which often creates openings for instability or forced sales.
Case in point: Seven of the 31 stores Beans owns came from dealers who failed to plan succession and had to sell.
The reality: Most dealers avoid succession planning because it forces them to deal with hard family realities (like whether their descendants actually have what it takes to run the business).
"I really think it's probably the most difficult because it's difficult to deal with the truth," Fred said.
The details:
Fred sought the help of Hugh Roberts, partner at The Rawls Group, to devise a succession strategy.
The Beans family spent months deciding which of Fred's three daughters would run the business.
And in total, they've been working on succession planning for over eight years.
Between the lines: Succession planning affects employees outside of the family as well. Long-term employees want to know the company has a future, and manufacturers won't approve a successor they don't believe can run the business.
"Ultimately, you've got to convince the manufacturer that your succession plan is going to work," said Roberts. "They've got situations where the dealer lives in La-La Land, thinking that his son or daughter is capable, and they're going to get turned down."
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State of play: Emotions often run high between family members during the process. So, the Beans family created detailed protocols to avoid the kind of blowups that kill family businesses:
Each family member who wishes to be involved must either enter as a standard employee (same vacation policy, behavioral standards, required training).
Or sign an agreement to be a successor who wants to lead.
On top of that: A "buy box" framework defines which acquisitions make strategic sense which also helps avoid generational conflict before it starts. The criteria includes market area fit, franchise alignment, proximity to existing "platforms,” and team capacity.
"That's one of the things that has helped stop us from arguing about a particular thing," said Beth Beans Gilbert, Fred's daughter and vice president of the Fred Beans Family of Dealerships. “Because you just come back and look at the basics: it doesn't fit our buy box."
Yes, but even with a framework, succession conversations can get heated.
For example, Fred likes buying stores. But Beth worries about whether the team can handle rapid expansion.
Yet, the buy box keeps them aligned. When they recently acquired three dealerships in Mechanicsburg, it made sense because they already had two stores there.
What's next: Christopher, the third generation, is traveling between dealerships implementing mobile service (a program the group had previously failed to launch).
Fred believes Christopher will get seven of their Ford stores into the top 12 for mobile service in the 118-dealer Philadelphia region by March.
“Running a store is the most fun part of the business, right? I wanted him to learn everything from the ground up like we did,’ noted Beth. “So, he has a mentor team that he reports to... He’ll also be going to Dealer Academy.”
The big picture: Roberts explained that succession planning takes longer than most dealers expect because building management depth requires time.
"It takes time to develop people. It takes time to address estate taxes. It takes time to prepare your management team," Roberts said. "The sooner you start addressing it, the better chance we have of being successful."
Bottom line: Succession planning requires both family harmony and business competence.
The trick is, neither one can be faked.
Successful transitions depend on family members earning respect on their own merit, committing to a shared vision, and knowing how to work through conflict together.
Go deeper: Dealers interested in Roberts' book Help, I've Got Family in the Business can email [email protected] for a signed copy.
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