Exit Planning – a Kick Start to Sustainable Growth

You’ve heard a lot from me recently about the importance of working ON your business – rather than just IN it – and setting aside time every week to do so. One of the best uses of that time is starting – if you haven’t already – and developing your exit plan.

“Why?” you ask. “I don’t plan to leave my company for years!” Good question. And there’s a great answer!

How an Exit Plan Helps Your Business Succeed Now

We all know that the results we want to achieve are much more likely when we have a plan. An exit plan, or strategy, will produce one of the most thorough, long-term business plans possible. It is built on your actual, eventual objective, not just what you want your business to look like in five years, or ten.

It will focus on increasing the value of your business, based on a calculated projection of the value needed at the time you eventually exit your business, define the steps to get there, and provide ways to track your progress. An exit strategy will require that you identify and prioritize the Value Drivers that impact your business most and define your Key Performance Indicators. Knowing these essential elements of growing your business will inform what your focus should be when you work ON your business.

Where do I start?

To plan any trip, you need to know the destination, for any project, the objective you want to achieve. Starting an exit plan can be as simple as choosing a date for your exit. It doesn’t have to be in stone but gives you a point from which to work backwards to start charting your course to get there.

Exit planning is sometimes mistakenly perceived as difficult and complicated, or a task that will take a lot of time away from running the business. The reality is that business building and exit planning are easily done concurrently. An exit plan provides a thorough, far-reaching, business plan with the agility built in to change direction if and as needed. When you are building your business most effectively, exit planning is a natural result.

A Focus on Value Optimization

One of the most effective ways to grow your business is to develop a?strategy focused on value optimization, that carries over into how the company is run. Maximizing the value of your business is also the focus of a good exit strategy, the key to accomplishing both long- and short-term goals, and the foundation for sustainable growth. By staying on top of your numbers, forecasting, and adjusting as necessary along the way, you execute your business-building strategy, which also leads to a successful exit.

Exit Planning Peer Advisory Board

As you begin taking the initial steps to adjust your business strategy to incorporate exit planning, there’s a highly effective way to optimize your efforts moving forward and that’s by joining like-minded business owners on your collective journey. This is why we created the?Exit Planning Peer Advisory Board?(PAB). Meeting every other month, we focus on building business now with an eye on your exit. In the process, this business owner peer group is building the future they envision for themselves, their family, and the company they will eventually step away from. It’s an invaluable opportunity to share challenges and solutions, and to help each other remain accountable to their company and themselves. As a seasoned exit strategist helping numerous business owners get to their next act, I’ll meet with you, one-on-one, in opposite months, to address issues that are unique to you.

Contact me?for a complimentary consultation, to learn more about value-based management and exit planning, or to be a guest at our?next PAB meeting.

Bob Zarlengo is a certified exit strategist and CPA. More than four decades of experience in public accounting, expertise in financial reporting, income and estate planning, and tax compliance makes him a valued and trusted advisor to his clients.?

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