Plan A

Give or sell the business to your next generation

Plan B

Sell the business to Management & / or staff initially through an Employee Share Scheme (ESS) or via a full Management Buyout (MBO)

Plan C

Sell the business through a Business Broker

Plan D

List the business by way of an Initial Public Offering (IPO)

Plan E

Hope that someone will approach you to buy the business Plan FNever retire, die slumped over your office chair, then exit problem is someone else’s problem

The above list only mentions some of the possibilities.

Exiting a business is an inevitability that many do not give proper (or any) attention to planning for. The pressures of running a business on a day-to-day basis means that in many cases extraneous issues are ignored due to the belief that they can wait. Have you ever said “I don’t have the time for that now, I will deal with it later”? Later has come and gone and the issues still get relegated to the bottom of the priority list. Before you know it, several years have passed and nothing has been done.

Interestingly getting your business Exit Ready or Transition Ready is good business management and planning with a few extra personal issues also being addressed as part of the process. One of the best starting points for those time poor owners is to engage an external party to project manage the process for them. Having someone not involved in the day to day running of the business hold owners accountable to a completion timetable is often crucial in maintaining forward momentum. This project manager or “Enabler” must have access to a comprehensive team of experts who have experience with business exists or transitions preferably who have worked together.

Below is a shortened list of issues that need to be addressed as part of the process to get your business Exit or Transition Ready. Over coming months topic specific articles will be added:

• Business Planning
• Succession Planning
• Organisational structuring
• Accounting & Tax Planning and Issues
• Legal Issues
• Retirement Investment Planning
• Sales & Marketing
• Post-Sale Planning