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
A Transition to Exit Planning It is time for a new direction. This marks my 400th posting to this site. I’ve enjoyed writing weekly about the daily issues and opportunities of business owners for almost ten years, but it is time for a change. Awake at 2 o’clock has a new look and new navigation, although we decided to keep the title, logo and banner. More about that in a bit. First the why behind the change. Regular readers may have noticed that, over the last year, I have been turning more frequently to exit planning subjects. That reflects my own career progress. Before 2007 I sold businesses as a ... Read more Stop Managing Why would anyone advise business owners to stop managing? Management is a proven science. From the time and motion studies of Frederick Winslow Taylor in the late 1800s, to Matthew Kelly and Patrick Lencione’s Dream Manager, we are constantly in search of ways to make employees more effective. Management trends (some say “fads”) come and go. Wikipedia lists a number of major theories since the 1950s, including Management by Objectives, Matrix Management, Theory Z, One-minute Management, Management by wandering around, Total Quality Management, Business process reengineering, Delayering, Empowerment, 360-degree feedback, Re-engineering and Teamwork. You could probably throw in a couple of offshoots like ISO 9000, Open Book ... Read more Exit Planning in a New Political Environment What does a new political environment mean for business owners who are planning to transition their businesses? Should you accelerate your plans, or slow them down? As I’ve said many times in this space and elsewhere, the biggest single factor in successfully selling a company is the current condition of the financial markets. Since the Great Recession, the Federal Reserve has poured new cash into the system at very low interest rates. This “cheap money” has trickled down to fund a wave of leveraged buyouts by financial professionals seeking a better return than that from more traditional investments. This wave of cash enables some 7,000 private equity ... Read more Exit Planning: Telling Secrets Planning your exit from a business is a process of telling secrets. For many owners, it is the most terrifying part of selling. A rancher in South Texas once said to me, “I’m going to tell you a secret, and you have to solemnly swear not to tell anyone. When you do, you have to make them swear the same thing.” Most business owners are very cautious about with whom they share their exit plans. The logic is intuitive. The more the information is shared, the bigger the chance is that someone will use the knowledge against you. Competitors will tell customers, insinuating that your company will no longer ... Read more Protecting Your Best Asset If you are planning your exit from the business, what is the best asset that you have to sell? Unless you have patented product, exclusive rights, or long-term customer contracts, you answer was likely “Our people.” Even if you have strategic differentiation like the ones above, “our people” was still likely a top-three answer. Proponents of Human Resource Accounting correctly point out that few businesses have a bigger investment. Hiring, training and developing talent is at the center of most successful organizations. But people aren’t chattels. How can someone rationally consider paying top dollar for your successful business when its best asset might disappear the ... Read more Exit Timing and the Global Economy How much will your exit timing be affected by the global economy? Most small businesses serve local markets. Their owners, if they have thought about it, plan to sell to a local individual. If the local market is healthy, why worry about the rest of the world? A few weeks ago I attended a presentation by Austan Goolsbee, former Chairman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors and the youngest member of his cabinet. Dr. Goolsbee was also a college champion debater (he beat Ted Cruz in the national finals) and a member of an improv troupe. That makes him an anomaly in the “dismal science;” ... Read more Business Buyers: The "Buy Now, Pay Later" Generation If you are preparing to sell your business, your buyers will likely be members of the “buy now, pay later” generation. Generation X is the first demographic group to be raised in a culture that put little emphasis on savings. Diner’s Club was introduced as the first “charge card” in 1960. By the end of that decade competition from member cards (American Express and Carte Blanche) and bank-owned revolving finance cards (MasterCard and Visa) began placing millions of cards in consumers’ hands. In a competitive credit environment, advertising for the revolving charge cards was directed to the pleasures of paying for something after you already enjoyed the ... Read more Is Your Business Built on Individual Heroics? Great employees are a wonderful gift, but individual heroics aren’t healthy for your business. Someday, you will start thinking about leaving the business. Perhaps you already do. When you begin planning for your transition, what will your company systems sound like when you describe them to a critical buyer? “Yes, we have a process for that. It hasn’t been updated, but Martha knows it like the back of her hand.” “We really don’t have anyone cross-trained on that machine. Bucky likes to work alone, but it’s okay because he hasn’t taken a vacation in three years.” “We always use Andy on that route. There are lots of traffic ... Read more Good Customers Can Be Bad When can good customers be bad? What could be wrong with a customer who buys a lot, pays promptly, and never has a service problem? They might be buying too much. No matter how strong or comfortable a sales relationship is, it could end. You may be confident that the customer is yours for life, but therein lies the problem. Someone who buys the business doesn’t have the same level of confidence that the customer will be around for a whole new ownership lifetime. Many mid-market companies rode one horse to success. There were bringing in a few million dollars in revenue when the landed “the big one.” ... Read more The Immortal Business Goes on Forever Do you run an immortal business? I hope so. If you answered “no,” or even hesitated to be sure of your response, then you don’t think of your business as immortal. So when do you plan to shut it down? Most owners react viscerally to that question. They’ve invested too much time and too much sweat to watch their companies become a memory. They care too much about employees and customers to entertain the idea of abandoning them. For many, the business is a part of them. Shutting it down would be like having a piece of you die. Ironically, we play mental gymnastics in our ... Read more |
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