What are the most common mistakes when planning for a business exit?

Most owners don't have their financial information ready - you need at least 3 years detailed stat accounts and management accounts. It takes longer than you think.

Primeiro ponto, é o preparo emocional. A empresa ou o cargo não pode ser você. O segundo ponto é a continuidade. A empresa precisa continuar após você, e o mais correto é preparar o time e os pares para essa sequência. O terceiro ponto é o financeiro. Estar bem planejado, com as reservas constituídas ou mesmo com renda passiva construída, trará o conforto para este planejamento estar claro.

Failure to plan the exit position during the beginning of the general business planning phase. Understanding when you are going to leave eliminates the delayed aspects associated with the stresses of "hanging on too long." Strategy planning requires and exit plan.

Exiting your business is not something you do on a whim. You need to have a plan to make sure you get top dollar. You have to deliberately build value into your business. If you are single person service business with no assets, there is no business to sell.

Every business should start with the exit in mind. As you grow you build systems and processes to ensure meeting objectives continue to improve net and EBITA so when it is time and you want to sell your financials are clean accurate and you have a higher EBITA than similar companies. Simply because you strategically planned the business as you built it to make it sellable. Remember buyers look at EBITA Cash flow and the industry multipliers as the brochure for the company’s price.

Lack of preparation, I.e. at least 2 years before sale, invariably means the Seller will be leaving cash on the table for someone else, usually hundreds of thousands £s, sometimes millions

We have had multiple clients who had the sale of the business fall through because they had ignored their bookkeeping. You can not discuss a sale with a potential buyer and then call in a panic to update your financials. The asking price has to be supported by the numbers. You cannot guess at what your income is, the cost to sell your products, have outdated information on your balance sheet and think the buyer will go through with the purchase when they see the true financial picture. You should always keep your accounting up to date. But if your plan is to grow a business to sell, you should be working with a professional for 3-5 years prior.

I sold one of our two companies for about double of what I thought it was worth (100k instead of 50K), but I think we just got lucky. Someone wanted that exact domain name - so look into that first - you might be surprised what your business name may actually be worth. !!!!!

Une chose qui m’a aidé à bien vendre mon entreprise, c’est d’avoir : - Augmenté fortement mon ÇA et mes bénéfices pendant les 3 dernières années - Rédigé un process clair et complet pour mon successeur et son technico-commercial - Je suis resté à la disposition de mon entreprise pendant la jonction et j’ai créé de nouveaux services. J’ai été engagé en CDI pour cela…

Package your business like you would with any major marketing initiative. Having been involved with a couple of sales and a merger and a closing of a subsidiary I'd say that a strategic plan should be developed to establish the objective (s) and cover accountibility as well as tiling and communications both internal and external. The plan is a strategy map that will assist in the execution and the aftermath.

Reportedly only 1 in 5 SMEs successfully sell. Many reasons for this, one of the key ones is some business owners want to "save" money by trying to sell their business themselves. Or they choose and inexperienced and cheap broker, who invariably fails. As the adage goes, "buy cheap, buy twice!"

I’ve seen business owners and their accounting teams use “creative accounting” to be as efficient as possible with taxes. It is a fine line of showing profitability, reducing expenditures, and ensuring the books are prepared for an exit years in advance.

A business broker is a professional who assists in the buying and selling of businesses, helping to connect buyers and sellers while also acting as an intermediary throughout the process. Only 25% of businesses that are listed for sale will eventually sell. There are several factors impacting this. Business brokers find that owners who start planning their sale 3+ years out have a much higher success rate than the industry average.

In my experience, going it alone is a great way to tank your exit strategy. Professionals provide experience that help if go smoother. The saying "Amateurs do it themselves, professionals use experts" is absolutely true. Not using an expert will cost you ten fold what you would pay them.

Finding the right broker to sell your business is imperative. If you find a broker that will take you on regardless of your industry, size and geographical location you are likely to pay a large upfront fee and find you never get a potential buyer put in front of you. Through our contacts and business coaching services we can help you not only find the correct broker but also maximise the sale value that can be achieved. Typically you should start this process at least 2-3 years prior to wanting an exit.

Planning for wealth accumulation and after-exit cash flow starts many years before the actual event. Using specifically designed strategies to properly compensate key employees and creating containers for capital to be efficiently allocated to reduce or eliminate tax exposure are two of the “must do” actions. Like planting seeds, the sooner the better to allow time to increase the benefit.

Exiting your current business can be a major life change but it is an opportunity for the next chapter. Thinking of this as new opportunities to relaunch your potential will only lead to new promise for you and those important to you. Schedule a few weeks to relax and recharge and success will be achieved

It's not essential to bounce into the next thing, but even so... When I exited my business, for the first few weeks, I felt lost and rudderless. A sense of drifting overcame me and I really didn't know where to turn. - plan some down time, time for you and your family. - have some idea of what next - volunteer somewhere, so you have a reason to get out of the house!

Planning your exit doesn't work. Being prepared for it ASAP does. Why? The idea of circling a date on a calendar 5 years from now with a sales price target and your ideal buyer sounds nice. As long as nothing changes in the meantime. In your business or your personal life. I don't like those odds. Exit plans don't work. Exit options do. Start creating them today because the reality is that what you want or need right now personally, professionally, or financially could be completely different in a year. The best part, there is absolutely no downside to getting your business exit ready, it's actually the opposite. An exit ready business is better to own in the meantime. They're more profitable, more valuable and easier to run. Why wait?

I’ve found that successful businesses can lack an exit strategy around key people. Building a business that is sustainable beyond the owner makes a business more attractive to prospective buyers. A lot of times the business lives and dies with the owner, who is the lifeblood of the company, but that is actually a negative when selling the business. It is imperative to build a top management team and ensure the business can function without your presence.

Selling a business is a long and difficult process. It will usually take 9-12 months, or even longer, depending on the industry and specific business.

Most owners make four assumptions that will invariably put them into the 80%+ statistic of businesses that never sell 1. They'll sell quickly and easily 2. They'll sell for far more than they're actually worth 3. There are plenty of buyers ready to make 1&2 happen 4. High street business brokers will make every effort to make 1-3 happen A business that can sell when the owner decides to do so is one that's been built using an investor mindset and process. It has used a build to sell principle for years beforehand. Getting the advice on how to do this is quite possibly the best investment an owner can make.

After the laborious & 3 times as long processes, referred to as due diligence and ‘opening the kimono’, the haggle, battering over price and terms and conditions precedent, are debilitating, soul destroying and too often are deal killing. A recent experience revealed the enormous impact in morale of the team involved in this Q&A process. The deal turned out to be an attempt at corporate stealth and conniving. The uncertainties from processes, can have a deeper impact than expected, by devaluing business goodwill & loss of knowhow, than owners allow for. If the deal falls through, the rebuild & restore is often alligator territory !