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Topics
Exit Planning
Practical insights to accelerate growth, strengthen operations, and build transferable value for any future transition.
Business Value
Learn proven strategies to increase your company’s value, overcome growth barriers, and position it for a profitable exit.
Finance Strategy
Practical advice to optimize cash flow, manage financial risks, and ensure your business stays on a path to sustained growth and profitability.
How To Prepare for a Strong Business Valuation
You’ve been reading our series and have decided to do some exit planning. You’ve audited your time, started planning for your free time, and have an idea how much money you’ll need for the next chapter. Now it’s time to find out what your business is worth now, so you can create a plan to get it to the value you need it to be. This week’s article shares the information you need to gather for a professional valuation, and what to do if you don’t have that information ready.
Determining the Value of a Business
How do you determine the value of a business? We discuss four methods for determining value, along with the variables and complexities that valuation professionals must factor in. You can address some of these factors ahead of time to set yourself up for the best result.
The Formula for an Effective Exit Plan
Ask a business owner over the age of 50 when they plan to transition or exit their business, and you’ll get one of two answers:
– a blank stare, or
– “I’ll work another 5-10 years and call it quits.”(And if you ask this person again in another 5-10 years, you’ll likely get the same answer!)
The bottom line is the same – most business owners lack a plan for leaving their business. Read the article to learn what goes into an exit plan.
The Benefits of Planning for Life Outside of Work
How long has it been since you did something just for the fun of it? What is on your list of “Things I’ll Do Someday When I Have Time”? You may think that you need to wait to start checking things off that list, but that’s a mistake.
There’s more to life than work, and it’s the things you enjoy in your leisure time that make you a well-rounded and happy human being. In this article, we invite you to start exploring and experimenting to find enjoyable and fulfilling activities outside of work and give some practical suggestions for how to do it.
One of the Biggest Barriers to a Successful Exit: YOU
It can be a self-perpetuating cycle: a business owner tells me she knows she needs to delegate so she can create bandwidth to plan ahead. But she can’t hand anything off because she hasn’t documented her processes which would allow someone else to follow the same steps and get similar results. Why hasn’t this happened? Because she doesn’t have time because she has so much on her plate.
Read the article to learn how to break this cycle and get out of your own way.
Common Barriers to a Successful Business Exit
Before we begin our deep dive into successful exit planning, we pause to look at the bigger picture. A successful exit will require you to overcome multiple barriers, all of which are interconnected. The good news is we know what the most common barriers are, and by doing this work, you will also build a stronger business.
Introduction To Exit Planning
What if we told you that thinking about your exit in the future actually helps you solve the problems you’re facing today in your business much more effectively? It’s true, and it’s why we’re so passionate about exit planning for business owners. This month we published the first of many articles on what exit planning is, why it’s so important, and when to start. If you need one reason to read, make it this:
80% of businesses put up for sale do not sell, and of the 20% that actually sell, only 14% achieve the desired sale price.
Want to be one of the <3% of business owners who realize the benefits of business ownership? Read the article to learn how.