Business Consulting
Someday, Everyone Will Leave Their Business
Whether by choice, disability or death, someday we all will leave our businesses. What we do now can potentially go a long way toward determining the financial and emotional impact of that departure. Our Exit Planning Process is a seven-step journey designed to help you to either transition away from the day-to-day operations of your company or to sell it. We focus on making sure you have the opportunity to sell to whomever you want, for the price you want, in the most tax efficient way possible. We have the processes and ability in place to help guide you each step of the way, including strategies to help make your business more valuable before you leave and how to minimize the impact of taxes on the sale or transfer of your business.
The Future Doesn’t Have to be Uncertain
If you are like most small business owners, you probably find it difficult to plan because your future has more unknowns than your non-business-owning counterparts. You might not know how much your business is worth, when you should sell, where to find a buyer, how to potentially fetch the best price, or even how much insurance to carry. If you have a family business or work with a partner, there may be added layers of complexity.
Our process is designed to help remove uncertainty. To help add structure and expertise to what may seem an overwhelming task. We add an additional set of hands to help keep track of your exit plan so you can focus on running your business.
Are you ready to leave your business?
Our Process
Phase 1
Taking stock of where you are and where you want to be
The first step in the process is taking stock of where you are today and what your goals are for tomorrow. We can do a valuation to help determine a ballpark figure for the worth of your business, as well as how your key performance indicators compare to the rest of your industry. Next, we help you determine potential buyers for your company. Potential buyers could be a family member, member(s) of the management team, a competitor, or even an outsider who is eager to enter your industry/market. We also analyze the skills and day-to-day roles of you and your key employees and help you know what you want your future role, if any, to be.
Phase 2
Design of the exit plan
Next, we compare what you described as your ideal future role to your company’s current position. We’ll help you identify changes that could be made to help increase the value of the company and potentially increase the likelihood of the company’s success after you step away. In this stage, we’ll also work with tax professionals to determine the tax implications of different strategies and discuss effective ways to quietly and privately promote your company’s sale. Lastly, we tie our recommendations to benchmarks to make sure that the process stays on track.
Phase 3
Implementation and Maintenance
Implementation requires involvement of many different skill sets. We believe that if you want to get full top dollar for your company, you will need special lawyers and maybe an M&A team. There may be confidentiality agreements to be drafted, HR work to be done, and changes to the accounting process. Our expertise is at delegating while helping keep the overall project on track, so your 3-year plan doesn’t turn into a 5-year plan. While we hold everyone accountable to the benchmarks, we set in Phase 2, you stay informed every step of the way and can still focus on running your business.
As Lieutenant General and former Deputy Director of the CIA, Vernon Walters, once said, “Uncertainty is the most chilling thing of all.” To help reduce the uncertainty you face with your largest asset, consider a complimentary consultation today.