Begin with the end in mind. But, we don't.
Ryan Kauth
business ownership advocate | university lecturer | business coach | fractional executive | podcast host | facilitator | founder
I remember seeing the "When will it end?" signs of desperation months into the spread of COVID. When I saw those, it reminded me of how so many small business exit strategies don't work. The main reason they don't is because, well, we don't usually have an exit strategy or succession plan.
We all have to make the choice of how to exit our business. For many, the choice is made for us. This Grow | Exit | Other newsletter theme for you hopefully never hits the "Other."
I haven't had anyone push back yet on the Covey concept of "Begin with the end in mind." But, I do find that not only do most startup founders not have an exit strategy or succession plan, but even established founders and family business owners also don't. So, let's review a few proactive exit strategy tenets.
- Most exit strategy and succession planning experts may say 5 years is the right time to put your exit plan into play. The point, though, is that either you will end or your business will end. It's one or the other.
- A minority of businesses sell via putting out a for sale sign. To me, that's too reactive. Plus, most are afraid to advertise the fact that their business is for sale. This reactive way is the same to me as expecting an unsolicited buy offer to appear on our desk or at our door or not in our Spam folder. Great when it happens, but it's not the typical case.
- The typical case is that we close and get little value, if any, for what we've built. And for most, that's not what we expected our retirement plan to be at all.
Nervous about your succession plan or exit strategy? I think we all should be. The good news is that you have a plan, a strategy.
Are you implementing it?
领英推è
ryan
Ryan Kauth
P.S. Part 2 of this theme to come in the next newsletter!
Ryan Kauth is a business coach for established founders, family enterprise owners, and their leaders. As you can imaging, he does help them with their succession and exits. On occasion, he also does some university lecturing, fractional executive work, and podcasting. His calendar is available here.