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

Key Employees: Build and Protect Business Value Key Employees You may have people working in key roles who are instrumental in growing and building the value of your business. These key people can be identified as having the following characteristics: Makes a substantial business contribution Possesses critical information or knowledge Maintains and nourishes key contacts and relationships Sellable Business In helping clients plan to build a sellable business, and then eventually exit on their terms and conditions, we emphasize that “key people are a key value driver” in realizing success in both of those strategic goals. And, we find it helpful for owners to have two categories in mind when considering key ... Read more Main Street Business: The Importance of a Written Exit Plan When planning for a vacation, do you typically jump in the car and just start driving without first determining where you are going? No, of course not. You plan out where you want to go, when you want to leave, what activities you want to do on the trip, and so forth. You create a plan to make sure that you know where you are going and what you are going to be doing. The same principle applies to business owners when transitioning from their Main Street and Mid-Market businesses. Without an exit plan in place, the odds of reaching your end goal are extremely ... Read more Non-Qualified Plans When I talk to business owners about “non-qualified plans,” their first reaction is often “Hold on there. I don’t want to get in trouble!” The term “Non-qualified” merely refers to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, more commonly known as ERISA. As the title indicates, it is the basic set of regulations for retirement plans. If your company offers a 401K or SEP IRA, it has a Qualified Plan. If you have an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), that is also an ERISA plan. Under the terms of ERISA, a plan must be made available to all employees. In return, the company can ... Read more Will You Be Ready? Will you be ready when it is time to leave your company? A business owner needs to have a basic business strategy to monitor company financials regularly. Several owners consider this a strategy to prepare for exiting their businesses. However, monitoring company financials is like looking in the rearview mirror. What if you could incorporate a business strategy that looks forward and leads to accelerating profitability and increases business value? In addition, this strategy helps lead to less stress, more free time, and ultimately helps take control of a business exit? The Active Strategy The Business Strategy is called Exit Planning. John H. Brown, author ... Read more Are Remote Employees Value Killers? Remote employees can have a dramatic impact on the value of your business. If your exit strategy is to sell to a third party, take some time to think about the areas where offsite workers could have an impact. Curb Appeal One of the first things any good business broker will look at is your curb appeal. Your business needs to look good, just like a house that’s for sale. (OK, maybe right now a house doesn’t even need to look good, but you know what I mean.) When I brokered Main Street businesses, I was always surprised at how much we had to tell ... Read more Avoiding Financial Anxiety Seek help and avoid financial anxiety[/caption] Everyone has financial anxiety to some extent. Whether you have a little money or a lot of money does not make a difference. However, when it comes to asking for help, many people avoid seeking financial advice until necessary.   As financial decisions become more complicated, it is far easier to make a mistake. Today more and more people procrastinate on making financial decisions. Procrastination to make financial decisions can ultimately lead to anxiety, delay, or indifference.   In this article, I provide three keys to seek out and accept financial advice from a professional advisor. If you recognize ... Read more Utilizing a NING Trust as Part of a Business Exit Strategy The most commonly stated goals of an exit plan for a business owner are to exit their business on their terms, to receive the highest possible value (or their desired value), and to do so in the most tax efficient manner. It takes time to implement the process to accommodate those objectives. When a business owner rushes to sell their business many things can be overlooked including how to set up the exiting transaction in a way that minimizes taxation. Particularly in California, state income taxes are excessive in relation to other states, especially compared to states that don’t have any income taxes. For 2020, ... Read more Internal Leaders Affect the Value of Your Business Internal leaders may not be obvious. They may not even have a “leadership” title. Make no mistake, however; internal leaders are critical to value and attractiveness when it comes to selling your business. In Super Bowl 55 we saw the impact of an internal leader. Tom Brady has the highest winning percentage of any single athlete in major professional sports. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have (or at least did up until this season,) the worst win/loss record over their entire existence of any major professional sports team. Yet one man changed the culture of the organization almost overnight. Remember, for all the accolades being heaped ... Read more Exit Planning and Marathon Runners “Eat well and exercise!” Just about everyone over 30 has heard this advice from someone interested in our health, usually a doctor. We all know that we should begin by doing SOMETHING, yet we wind up not really doing anything. We know deep inside that if we want to live long and prosper, taking a few painful steps will have long-term pay-offs, but all too often those first few steps never happen. What has this got to do with Exit planning? Business owners know they should be taking steps to plan for the future, but all too often they don’t seem to get around to ... Read more Thinking About the Future: What's Your Plan? We’ve all heard the saying, “Fail to plan, plan to fail.” This is extremely pertinent if you’re thinking about the future of your business. Many owners focus solely on the exit transaction itself without spending the time to properly prepare for it. Transitioning your business can take many forms, from passing to a family member to selling to a strategic partner. Here are some things to think about before you transition. Are you ready to leave? Many business owners fail to consider what they’ll do after a transaction. Do you plan to continue to work in the business? For how long? To whom will you ... Read more « Newer EntriesOlder Entries »