When time comes to tell your banker you’re planning to exit your business, or when you need money you may experience feelings ranging from mild anxiety to outright panic. Why? We’ve been conditioned to believe that bankers say “no” far more often than they say “yes.” That may or may not be true but bankers [...]

The necessity of having a trained and motivated management team in place before and after you leave the company cannot be overstated. In the eyes of a buyer, a business has little value if its owner’s departure means the new owner must reinvent the wheel. So it is with systems. Once you are gone, can [...]

“I haven’t decided what I ultimately want to do with my business, or when I want to exit, or how much money I’ll need, or whom to sell to, so how can I plan my exit? Besides, I don’t want to exit right now.” If you’ve said this, or thought it, you are not alone. [...]

If you contemplate transferring your business to an insider (employees, children or co-owner) and you want to get paid the value of your business, then, generally speaking, the value of your business cannot exceed four times the true cash flow of the business. We have defined true cash flow as the amount of pre-tax money [...]

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 [...]

“You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there.” — Yogi Berra
It is not always easy to interpret Yogi. In this case, perhaps he is advising you to figure out just where you are headed in your business. As you near the time when you [...]

According to Paul Simon, there are 50 ways to leave a lover. Not being as creative as Mr. Simon, we’ve only come up with eight ways for owners to leave their companies.

Transfer the company to a family member;
Sell the business to one or more key employees;
Sell to key employees using an Employee Stock Ownership Plan [...]

Nora Chapman’s story was typical of most business owners. At age 54, she was ready to leave her 25-employee business. She was thinking of selling to one or two of her key employees and when we met her, her first question to us was: “Is this the right exit choice?”
Many of you find yourself in [...]

As exit planners, we consistently urge business owners to take the initiative when planning their exits. Today, we apply that perspective to encourage them to go beyond panicked headlines and take a clear-eyed look at options in light of their: (1) exit objectives, (2) companies and (3) current M&A conditions in their marketplaces before they [...]

“I can’t play golf every day.”
“My wife wants to see more of me — but not at every breakfast, lunch, and dinner!”
“What do other ex-owners do after they’ve sold out?”
Failing to answer these concerns can create vacillation, reluctance, and ultimately, an unwillingness on the part of many owners to proceed with planning for their business [...]