No matter where you are in your business's life cycle, you need to plan your “Exit Strategy” NOW !​​

​What is an Exit Strategy?  
An Exit Strategy is a high level plan designed to maximize the value of your business and enable you to monetize that value any time you need or want to. Exit Strategies often include a road map to transform your business to optimize its value, supported by a tactical business plan tightly aligned to the strategy.

What is included in an Exit Strategy review?

Understanding what acquirers are looking for and how they value different types of revenue streams and contracts are key to positioning the Exit Strategy. This includes a comprehensive understanding of the business, focusing on factors relevant in your industry (these may include: customer bases, recurring revenue, lease commitments, employment contracts, tax attributes, license & distribution rights, real estate and sales channels, to name just a few). As an example, you may think that the larger your annual revenue the larger the purchase price, but in fact an acquirer may pay more for less revenue where such revenue is predictable and recurring. Helping you transform your business to increase its value includes considering what tactics are best for you. Such tactics include acquisition and/or organic growth, alternative sales channels, product/marketing alignment and expansion into adjacent goods/services or into new geographies, to name a few.

Are there collateral benefits from creating an Exit Strategy?
Creating an Exit Strategy will lead you to better understand your business and industry. It will help you look at things in ways you have never done before; often leading you to transform aspects of your business as you focus only on those things that matter most … the few things that will make the biggest positive impact.

Do you think my business is too small for an Exit Strategy?
Your business may be small now but with proper planning and commitment it can significantly grow to be very successful. Understanding how to ultimately monetize your business ensures you grow on the right path.

If I don’t plan to sell for many years is it too early for me to plan an Exit Strategy?

You may have heard of others' misfortunes that resulted in the need to quickly sell their business only to find they were not able to get the anticipated value. Unfortunately, unexpected devastating events can occur (often related to an owner’s health or the health of loved ones), creating the need to quickly exit the business. Much like a succession plan, having a well-defined Exit Strategy in place allows you to execute a plan and not make quick, rash and emotional decisions.

My business is doing well; why change what’s working?

It is said that "change is the only constant".  Clearly one can never improve one's business without change. By understanding best practices you can focus on discrete areas that matter most to the success of your business. Think of Olympic athletes ... knowing the record is achievable they seek to excel at what they are doing to establish a new record.  Similarly, we identify best practices and seek ways for you to achieve, if not exceed, those practices. 

Once I have an Exit Strategy I don’t know if I have the ability to execute it?
You would not be operating a successful business today if you had not developed certain systems, methodologies, best practices and a strong and disciplined executive team to manage and grow your business. The same team can help design and implement the key elements of your Exit Strategy with the assistance of experts who have proven backgrounds and broad experiences to lead the process while helping to avoid mistakes and mitigate risks. 

I’m concerned about telling key employees that I’m preparing to sell the business.
First, you are preparing for an event that may not happen soon; when the time comes to exit you will likely need to involve your key employees and senior management team. There is a right way and wrong way to approach such a sensitive and impactful business milestone. We can work with your team to build an Exit Strategy without them being aware of the ultimate goal. We can describe the engagement simply as a "business review" with the goal of refining the business strategy, positioning for growth and identify areas for continual business improvement. 

I am an entrepreneur with an MBA; I can do this myself. 
Dentists don’t drill their own teeth. Even if you thought about an Exit Strategy, is this your area of expertise? Can you be completely objective when it comes to your business? Can you keep your emotions out of your decision-making? One views his/her business like one’s children… it’s so hard to see them as anything less than perfect. That’s where an unbiased third party with different experiences helps by challenging the status quo causing you to see your business very differently. Besides, do you have the time to take on such a sizeable and important project?

Does my advisor need expertise in my industry?

The greats from all walks of life use a coach to get even better. Sometimes the very best coaches know nothing about your industry. It is their status as an outsider that makes their perspective so valuable.
 “Why You Need a Business Coach; An outsider's perspective can be more valuable than you suspect” by John Warrillow, author of Built to Sell http://www.inc.com/john-warrillow/why-you-and-your-business-need-a-coach.html

Should I not focus all my resources on growing the business before I plan my Exit Strategy? 
Most owners focus on the day-to-day aspects of developing and growing their business, problem solving and leveraging opportunities which consumes their working days and mind share. They rarely make time to step back and think about how they will “exit and get all their money off the table”. Who has time to spend thinking about something that seems so far down the road and for which there is no immediate return? Unfortunately, when they need or want to sell, the price they get is a fraction of what they could have achieved had they planned for this much earlier.