There's a new book that every entrepreneur, founder, and small business owner should have on their desk. It's called Golden Retention... Protecting, Scaling, and Exiting with Your Best People, written by financial advisor and strategist Ryan Beck.
The title may sound straightforward, but what Beck has packed inside is anything but basic. This is a guidebook for those who have poured their lives into building a business, yet secretly worry about how to protect it, how to keep their best people, and how to one day step away without watching it all collapse.
And if you're a business owner, chances are those worries hit home.
Ryan Beck, CFP®
Author, Golden Retention...
Protecting, Scaling, and Exiting with Your Best People
The Problems Business Owners Don't Like to Admit
Running a business is thrilling. It's also exhausting. You spend years (or decades) building something out of nothing, investing time, sweat, tears, and often your own savings. Yet despite all the long nights and hard work, most entrepreneurs face three massive challenges:
1. Unexpected threats that could wipe everything out.
A death, disability, lawsuit, or unexpected economic downturn—and suddenly the company you spent years growing could vanish. Most owners don't have contingency plans.
2. Struggles with retaining top talent.
You find a great employee, train them, invest in them... only to see them poached by a competitor offering a signing bonus or bigger perks. High turnover drains morale, slows growth, and costs far more than most owners realize.
3. The uncertainty of exit.
Every owner will exit their business—whether by sale, succession, or death. Yet the majority never create a serious plan. The result? Lost value, family conflicts, tax headaches, and in too many cases, watching the business dissolve instead of become a legacy.
Beck argues that these problems aren't random—they're predictable. And if they're predictable, they're preventable.
A Three-Step Framework: Protect, Scale, Exit
Golden Retention... Protecting, Scaling, and Exiting with Your Best People
By Ryan Beck, CFP® out now.
At the heart of Golden Retention is a deceptively simple three-step framework:
1. Protect your business today.
Without protection, there may not be a tomorrow. Beck stresses the importance of buy-sell agreements, succession planning, key person insurance, and legal structures that shield both the company and the people who depend on it.
He shares painful stories of companies that ignored these steps. One equipment leasing firm thrived for two decades until one partner suddenly passed away. Because no plan was in place, ownership shifted to his wife and eventually to their son—who had no experience. Within two years, the company was liquidated. The surviving partner lost control. The surviving spouse lost retirement security. The company's employees lost their jobs.
All because the founders failed to protect what they built.
2. Scale through people.
Growth doesn't come from working harder. It comes from hiring the right people, keeping them engaged, and giving them reasons to stay. Beck is blunt: "People are the lifeblood of your business."
He points out that turnover is one of the most underestimated business risks. The Center for American Progress estimates replacing an employee costs between 16% and 213% of their annual salary, depending on the role. But the real loss is momentum—knowledge walks out the door, customer relationships vanish, and remaining employees wonder if they should be next.
Scaling requires deliberate retention strategies, not just competitive salaries. Beck devotes much of the book to what he calls "Golden Handcuffs"—benefits, incentives, and programs designed to keep your best people loyal. Unlike the outdated notion of handcuffs as a trap, these modern versions make employees want to stay.
These include:
• Executive bonus plans tied to performance and long-term goals
• Split-dollar life insurance policies as retention tools
• Deferred compensation programs that reward loyalty over years, not months
• Financial literacy programs that reduce employee stress and build trust
• Retention bonuses during mergers, acquisitions, or leadership transitions
3. Beck also highlights culture as the glue. Flexible work, wellness programs, career development, recognition, and values alignment are now non-negotiable. Companies like Google, Salesforce, and HubSpot prove that forward-thinking strategies keep employees engaged long after the novelty of salary bumps fades.
4. Exit with confidence.
Finally, Beck tackles the elephant in the room: the business exit. Whether you plan for it or not, it's coming. And in most cases, it will be the single biggest financial transaction of your life.
He urges owners to prepare early, citing the story of "Tom," a successful retailer who ignored a buyout offer in favor of continued expansion. Years later, online competition gutted his margins, forcing liquidation. He walked away with a fraction of what he once could have gained—all because he never planned an exit strategy.
Beck outlines the three doors every owner must eventually choose:
• Sell to an insider (co-owner, family member, or key employee)
• Sell to an outsider (third-party buyer, investor, or private equity)
• Continue to own while letting someone else manage
5. Each option has tax, legal, and emotional implications. The trick, Beck says, is to start years in advance, build a professional advisory team, and structure deals to maximize value while preserving legacy.
Why Business Owners Resist These Steps
If these solutions sound obvious, why do so many business owners ignore them?
Beck suggests three reasons:
• Busyness. Owners are consumed by day-to-day operations and firefighting. Strategic planning gets pushed aside.
• Short-term thinking. Many treat benefits and retention as transactional instead of strategic—adding one-off perks instead of crafting a cohesive plan.
• Denial. Facing mortality, succession, or the idea of selling a business feels uncomfortable. So they delay, hoping problems won't materialize.
The irony, Beck argues, is that failing to address these issues almost guarantees that they will materialize.
Insights That Stick
One of Beck's strengths is illustrating concepts with stories and questions that hit you right in the gut. A few standout insights from the book:
• On business protection: "No reason to plan for tomorrow if today is not protected."
• On scaling: Top employees rarely leave because of performance—they leave because they don't see a future.
• On exit planning: "There is no dress rehearsal. This will likely be the largest transaction of your life."
• On retention: "Golden Handcuffs, when done right, aren't chains. They're incentives that make employees want to stay loyal."
He also challenges owners to ask themselves uncomfortable but vital questions:
• How confident are you that your top people will still be with you at the time of sale?
• If you died tomorrow, what would actually happen to your business?
• How would your family and employees be affected if you were suddenly gone?
• Do you know what your business is worth—and is that number enough to fund your retirement?
Why This Book Matters Now
We're living in a time of unprecedented labor competition and business uncertainty. Remote work has expanded employee options. Younger generations prioritize culture and growth over paychecks. And economic shocks—pandemics, inflation, supply chain disruptions—can threaten even the strongest companies.
For business owners, the stakes are higher than ever. Protecting the company, scaling through people, and planning for exit aren't optional. They're survival.
Beck's Golden Retention doesn't just point out the problems. It provides actionable strategies—financial tools, cultural shifts, and exit frameworks—that owners can implement immediately.
But perhaps its greatest value is perspective. By reading the book, owners realize they aren't alone in their struggles, and that with the right planning, they can move from reactive to proactive.
A Book That Could Save Your Legacy
At its core, Golden Retention is about control. Control over your business's destiny. Control over whether your best people stay or go. Control over whether your life's work ends in liquidation, litigation, or legacy.
Ryan Beck has given owners a playbook. The question is whether they'll use it.
If you're a business owner who's ever lost sleep over protecting what you've built, keeping your team loyal, or wondering what will happen when you're ready to walk away—this book is a wake-up call.
Final Thought
Your business may feel like one of your children. You've nurtured it, sacrificed for it, and dreamed about its future. But unlike your children, your business won't take care of itself.
You must protect it, scale it, and plan its exit. That's the path to keeping both your company and your people strong long after you're gone.
And if you want a roadmap for how to do it? Start with Golden Retention.
About Ryan Beck:
Ryan Beck, CFP®, ChFC®, CLU®, is a managing partner at Wealth Strategies with more than two decades of experience helping businesses and individuals protect, grow, and transfer wealth. Inducted into Marquis Who's Who for his professional excellence and impact in financial services, Beck has guided countless business owners through succession planning, executive benefits, and employee retention strategies. His new book, Golden Retention—Protecting, Scaling, and Exiting with Your Best People, distills these insights into a practical playbook for leaders who want to safeguard their companies, keep top talent loyal, and exit on their own terms.
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