The Realities Of Building And Exiting Your Business

Start with the end in mind, isn't that what they say?

But in business, that's the exception not the norm.

Founders often tell me → as 20 or 30-somethings - they said they’d exit when they were 50-something…

… but now, as 50-somethings, they have no plan to scale the business to an exit.

They might now have a good game plan to reach an exit - but not the deep expertise and experience to pull it off.

Think about it. Company owners regularly achieve success because they had a solid business idea, it was well executed - plus they had plenty of grit and determination to grow the business.

And to be fair, things might go pretty well over the years.

There are inevitable ups and downs. Constraints. Challenges. Yet a good living is enjoyed.

But there is no actual exit strategy!

Which is odd. Because everyone exits their business one way or the other.

And here’s the thing about an exit strategy → it’s a bit like a pension.

You wouldn’t wait until you’re a year away from “retirement” to know how you’re going to fund that chapter of your life.

Same with an exit strategy.

Why would you wait till you’re ready to exit?

An exit strategy is about working out how to create the most valuable and saleable business you can.

Said another way, if you don’t know who will ultimately acquire your company and what’s valuable to them…

… then how can you make the highest quality decisions today and everyday - like where to focus your energy, resources and capital - to achieve that end goal?

#NextLevelGrowth #ExitLaunchpad #M&A #ScaleUp