Business Exit Planning
The journey of entrepreneurship is fueled by a common driver: the passion for impact. You might not have known from the start exactly how you’d get to the finish line, but your instincts were soaked in clarity and courage. You knew you could do the same thing better than others – or you envisioned a greater outcome than the marketplace could see for itself.
Above all, you sought freedom: the liberty to do whatever you wanted whenever you wanted, as long as your customers and clients checked the value box with a big bold X. Clarity offered resilience to weather the high’s and low’s.
The tug and pull of what’s next
Entrepreneurs live their business building years certain they’ll work forever. For many, it’s your first-born child: wisdom, leadership and humility in a wrapper of purpose. It’s difficult to picture your life without the business needing you and you needing it.
Yet in recent times, the daily grind is a little more grinding than it used to be. That whatever-whenever freedom you sought is ironically limited. Sure you control the direction of your business but the direction of your business controls so much else. The simple thought of playing hooky is number 100 on a list of 99 things that require immediate attention.
Even still, the idea of exiting is daunting. The immensity of the topic is fueled by broad misconceptions. The first is that exit planning is a hard stop: you collect a check and stop going to work every day. The second is that exit equals a sale to an outside party, whereas often the most elegant solutions can be achieved through family succession, or sale to key leadership.
Equally important, the planning process does not presume a near term exit. It’s a strategy to grow the value of the business. Done well, it’s a bridge between your current day to day reality and what life could look like if or when you decide to transition out of the business. On today’s side of the bridge, business value validates your unusual achievements. On the far side, harvesting the value empowers your future footprint – literally funding your next venture or adventure.
The planning process is a journey of preparedness personally, financially and relationally. It’s a proactive intentional path to quantify your financial picture, fully monetize what you’ve built, envision what’s next, and close the gap between the material resources you have, and the amount you need to keep flourishing.
The Exit With Impact process offers leadership, coaching and financial analysis to navigate the space between where you’ve been and what’s next.
Exit With Impact: know, grow and harvest your options
Business owners come into our exit planning process with curiosity as their driver. Decades in business have dimmed their early passion spark and they want it back. They’re ready to reclaim the freedom of their original intentions, yet also to design their next big milestone.
Your business is concrete proof of achievement. The value of your business is the fuel for your life-after-the-business footprint. Knowing the value is the first step to freedom. Growing the value maximizes your potential.
Business value: the #1 driver for maximizing your transition
Self-made entrepreneurs typically have 80% of their net worth tied up in the value of the business, yet many don’t have a clear picture of what the business is worth. With your business as your primary financial asset, it’s essential to look past its role as an income or revenue stream, and into its role as a body of wealth. This shift begins with learning its value and understanding how to proactively grow the value.
Grow your personal clarity and your business value at the same time
Business exit can be a financial win, and still your desire for future impact has its own price tag. Our planning process secures your current and next phases simultaneously.
First, take the assessment linked below. In 15 minutes, you’ll gain an estimate of your value builder score based on 8 key metrics. The metrics with lower scores offer your greatest opportunity. Our consulting engagement offers leadership to raise your scores, increasing the value of an exit’s net take away.
Second, we begin to codify the big bold design of your next journey of influence. We explore your achievements in life and business and cultivate your transferrable talents, belief systems, wisdom and core values. Then we look forward to design your whatever-whenever goal: if you could impact anyone or anything, where would you direct your intellect and passion?
Ultimately, we will quantify your total financial resources, and the number required to fund your livelihood and your passion. If there’s a gap, the Value Builder approach brings the two paths into alignment.
Clarity in both areas liberates your intellect and your emotions. Intentionality and proactivity have been your career-long companions. Let’s ensure they cheer you to your next big win.
Value Builder Assessment: know the value, grow the value
Our value assessment is based on something we call Owners’ Metrics. This means we capture facts and financials yet also the intrinsic value of people, passion and customer relationships. This lays the foundation for a number that celebrates the sum total of your achievements beyond the limited analytics and generic market snapshots that many assessments rely on.
After completing your assessment, our team will reach out to schedule your gratis debrief, and share the clear path forward to growing your personal clarity and your business value at the same time.
