Only 30 percent of all small business owners have a succession plan — a strategy for what will happen when the owner/operator moves on, says Dwayne Powell Jr., of Kalamazoo Forward Ventures. And they own about 40 percent of all small businesses in the nation. The disconnect between retiring business owners and prepared business buyers is a major problem, Powell says. “It was a family-owned business,” Powell says. To that end, the organization will host a conversation with business owners about business succession and ownership from 2 to 4 p.m. on March 12, 2026, at the Catalyst Center.