Planning Your Exit Part 1: The Beginning
“Leaving your business and transferring ownership is likely the most significant financial transaction of your life. Nothing you do – in or out of your business – has greater financial and emotional consequences, and nothing less than the future quality of your life depends upon how well you manage the process.”
Exit Plans are complex. In a recent national survey, 79% of business owners plan to exit in the next 10 years with only a staggering 17% having documented their Exit Plans.
Business owners should devote their time and energy to both direct short-term operations as well as plan an exit over 5 to 10 years. In these times of change and complexity, the most desirable approach is to synergize exiting into routine business planning.
Let’s begin
To start planning your exit, you will need to answer the following questions:
1. How much income do you desire in the future?
2. When do you want to leave your business?
3. How do you wish to leave your business?
The answers to these three questions are documented by creating a simple Exit Plan which provides key detail to be integrated into a Business Plan. This series of actions makes happen an Exit.
What’s next
Typically, a Team of experienced and credentialed professionals is required to support an evolving Exit Plan.
Preparing for and exiting from one’s business has been one of the priorities of TBC with its clients since the firm first offered its services over 30 years ago.
This is the first part of a series of articles on Exit Planning. Future blogs in this series will focus on Business Valuation, Internal Sale of Business and External Sale of Business.
Have any questions or want to learn more? Call us at (510) 797-8375 or send us an email to request more information.
CONTRIBUTOR
Bob Morris
Certified Management Consultant, One Page Planner, Succession Planning, Teacher