“Exit Planning? I’ll start soon—I’ve got plenty of time.”
“Exit Planning? I’m too busy. I just don’t have enough time.”
The problem with both of these statements is that active business owners seldom slow down. We all know that the only things likely to reduce your pace are death or terminal burn-out. This is not to imply [...]

Let’s review the four areas where business owners who want to both survive in today’s economic climate and emerge from it poised for growth (or sale) can focus their energies. As you may recall, those areas are:

Preserving and Protecting Value
Identifying Value and Cash Flow
Creating Revenue
Creating Value

Most owners are currently waist-deep in the first area: cutting [...]

The Exit Planning process should begins by determining your goals and objectives such as:
The income you and your family will need after you leave the business; and
Who you wish to transfer the business to — whether it is children, key employees or others.
And, Exit Planning involves the determination of business value and the capability of [...]

The current recession has given all business owners, quite literally, pause: pause in growth, pause in hiring, pause to reconsider exactly where our companies are heading — or need to head — if we are to meet our owner-based goals.
I have discussed the many benefits of using the time afforded by today’s economic downturn to [...]

Exit Planning is an on-going process. It begins with establishing your objectives and a valuation of your company and ends with your successful exit. Along the way, you and your Team of Advisors look at preserving the value of your company, protecting that value from creditors and increasing overall value. Also important is making contingency [...]

We’ve met few business owners who believe they should pay more income taxes every year. Instead, most business owners are frustrated with the inability to engage in meaningful income tax planning that reduces the annual tax bite. Take Thomas Lamplighter for example.
Thomas was a second-generation owner of a brickyard. His eventual Exit Planning objective was [...]

Near the end of 2008, we noted that the economic downturn had forced many owners to postpone their plans to exit their companies. We then looked at the several actions owners could take to respond to that delay:

Ride out the storm doing one’s best to protect value.
Use the time to build business value.
Avoid the delay [...]

Too often, owners discover that the compensation plans they’ve put in place for key employees are sadly inadequate only when those key employees leave their companies for greener pastures. The departure of one or more of these key employees can not only complicate your daily business life, but it can slam shut the door on [...]

Franklin Taft was understandably a bit neurotic. He was increasingly anxious to begin planning for his eventual departure from his business but his concerns prevented him from proceeding. “I’m too busy working in my business to think about how to leave it. Besides, I don’t know what to do-and neither do my advisors.”
Sound familiar? In [...]

There may be nothing worse for a business than to have its owner suddenly die. . . especially if it’s your business.
Let’s look at what can happen when an owner dies.
Joe Carpenter was the 55-year-old sole owner of a successful construction company. Joe hoped to sell his company to a third party in the next [...]