Your ExitMap Blog gathers contributions from top exit planning professionals across the country that are indexed into four categories. They include select strategies for planning your exit, ideas for building your company’s value, transfer options you can choose from, or preparing to enjoy your post-exit lifestyle. This page shows the most recent posts from Your ExitMap Blog. If you are seeking a qualified exit planning professional, you can view a map of specialists here.

All articles are copyrighted by the authors, and reprinted here with permission. Each author’s contact information is available via a link at the end of the article.

Most Recent Your ExitMap Blog Articles

Most Recent Blog Articles

Selling Your Business - the Buyer's Eyes Selling your business is much like selling a house. In order to realize the highest price possible, you want it to look its best. The other day I passed an independent gas station/convenience store. The marquee at the curb advertised  their price for “unlead” gas. Really? Unleaded fuel has been required for new cars since 1975. Lead was completely banned as an additive 22 years ago. That means anyone who has bought a new car in the last 40-plus years, and every driver under 40 years old, has never purchased anything but unleaded gas. What does that indicate about the maintenance of the business? If it has been decades ... Read more Subordinated Debt in an Exit Plan Subordinated debt can be a key consideration in any sale transaction. Whether you are contemplating a sale to a third party or an internal transfer to employees, the topic of taking second place to a lender will likely come up. If an outside buyer is financing the purchase, seller notes can be considered as part of a down payment, but any bank will require it to hold second priority to their loan. If the Small Business Administration is involved, they will usually demand that the seller assume some of the risk with a secondary loan. In an internal sale, that will be a requirement. Risk vs. Reward As ... Read more Business Buyers and Disintermediation In the last post, we discussed the reluctance of many prospective business buyers to deal with the regulatory burden of being an employer or service provider. You may be among the lucky few whose profession doesn’t require licensing. Even better, you may have qualified employees who are able to run the business without you. There are other issues that concern younger buyers, however. One of these is the threat of disintermediation. That’s a trendy word for what we used to call “bypassing the middle man,” but it applies to many businesses that are being made obsolete by technology. Disintermediated Businesses How many business people still ... Read more What's Wrong with the Buyer Generations? Many of the upcoming buyer generations can’t or won’t run Baby Boomer businesses. This is (or should be) of concern to sellers everywhere. “The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households.” Attributed to Socrates by Plato. Elders have been complaining about their offspring for 2,500 years. The complaints change only in the activity bemoaned. “Chatter in place of exercise” is replaced by those damn radios, or automobiles, or television, or rock’n’roll, or cell phones or texting. It’s amazing when you realize that ... Read more Death, Taxes and Exit Planning (This post was published in the Sageworks/ProfitCents blog earlier this week) Understanding the Post-Ownership Void As advisors, we understand that our business clients should be preparing for the biggest financial event of their lives – the sale of their business. However, when we ask, “How are you exit planning for your retirement from the business?” we seldom get a straight answer. Instead, we get any number of comments like: “I still enjoy my business, I’m not thinking about it right now.” “I have a good company. I can sell it whenever I choose.” “Everything is available for the right price. I just haven’t heard it ... Read more Employee Retention Before and After Your Exit In most businesses, employee retention is a material factor in valuation and transferability. The ability of a buyer to assume control of a fully-functional organization has substantial influence on his or her perception of a company’s value. Any need to pay the seller for an extended period of training adds a redundant executive salary to the projected operating costs. Concern that key personnel may resign or be recruited away by a competitor adds a level of uncertainty to the transfer. Of course, the basic premise of “The more you work in the business, the less it is worth.” always applies. Even if you’ve effectively delegated most of ... Read more Celebrating Mr. Fezziwig To celebrate the holiday, I’m reprinting a post from 2013 about the underappreciated boss of A Christmas Carol, Mr. Fezziwig. I hope that you enjoy it. Merry Christmas! Last week was the 170th anniversary of the publication of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (December 17, 1843). The immortal words of Ebenezer Scrooge are ingrained in the memory of the entire English speaking world. I’d venture to guess that “Bah, Humbug!” can be correctly identified as to source and speaker by over 99% of those reading this. The novella, serialized in five parts, was not a commercial success. Unhappy with the sales of his previous novel (Martin Chuzzlewit– no wonder!), ... Read more Life After Exit -- Time is of the Essence From time to time, we share real stories about life after exit from owners who have sold their businesses. Some are great and some… not so much. The have agreed to share their experiences to help other owners prepare for both the process of transferring their companies and what comes after. The Business BVA Scientific, a distributor of laboratory supplies and equipment, started in Bob and Nancy Davison’s bedroom with the garage serving as the “warehouse.” Both had a background in laboratory supply sales, and they focused on building deeper customer relationships than the multi-billion dollar vendors who dominate the industry. That approach helped the ... Read more Exit Planning - Maintaining Control For many owners, their biggest concern in an exit plan is maintaining control.  Whether they seek to sell to employees, family or a third-party, there is a fear that, once started, the process will have its own rules and momentum. My colleague John Warrillow, author of Built to Sell and The Automatic Customer, has written an excellent white paper on the types of people who own businesses. John previously owned a data-driven marketing company, and always backs up his opinions with solid research. I’ll leave the indicators of the entrepreneurial types to John, since it is his material. His conclusion, however, is that 2% of owners are Mountain Climbers. ... Read more Choosing Your Timeframe to Exit “My timeframe? Talk to me in about five years.” When business owners are asked about exit planning, that answer is almost ubiquitous. In fact, a much-quoted 2008 survey of owners by Price Waterhouse Coopers (now PwC – not clear why Mr. Waterhouse warranted lower case) found that 85% of private business owners said they expected to sell in five years. Clearly, that didn’t happen, since it would have required some  1,500 businesses to be sold daily during that period. (The brokerage industry claims about 9,000 sales a year.) In fact, when the survey results were broken down, they discovered that 85% of 60 year old owners ... Read more « Newer EntriesOlder Entries »