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.

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Most Recent Your ExitMap Blog Articles

Most Recent Blog Articles

Why Plan Now? Exit Planning for Small Business Owners ask all the time, “Why Plan Now?” “I’m not planning to leave my business for years. I feel good, and I still enjoy my business. I’m not sure what else I would do. Besides, if my company is only going to sell for two or three times earnings, I can make more than that by sticking around.” All are valid arguments. Baby Boomers, the youngest of whom turned 55 this year, are working longer and are more active well into their 60s and often into their 70s. The term “next career” describes the growing portion of the population who are choosing another full-time activity ... Read more Selling to Employees: Exit Planning for Small Business Part 4 Selling to employees is one method of transition that is growing rapidly in popularity. Usually the  driving motivation is a desire to help the people who got you this far enjoy some of the benefits of ownership, but there is a substantial list of other benefits. Pricing is agreed at the start, not in adversarial negotiations. Valuation is flexible. The business can be sold for more or less than its Fair Market Value, as long as both sides agree and cash flow supports it. The legacy of the business lives on in the community. Where there are substantial challenges to an outside buyer, such as ... Read more Family Succession: Exiting a Small Business Part 3 It’s time to discuss family succession. In Part One of this series we looked at exit strategies that aren’t really available to small businesses, and in Part Two we discussed selling to a third party. Now let’s talk about the issues when transferring to a family member or members. Which Kids? When passing the business to family, often the primary issue is inheritance. Small business owners frequently have 50%, 60% or as much as 80% of their personal net worth in their company. There is a temptation to treat the business like any other personal asset, and divide it among all the children. dinner “After ... Read more Exiting a Small Business #2 - Selling to a Third Party “In our last episode,” (I’ve always wanted to say that) we discussed the exit paths that are not usually available when exiting a small business. Those are ESOP, Private Equity, and Strategic Acquisition. Now let’s talk about what you can do. The Realities of Selling to a Third Party Multiple surveys over the last decade all show the same result. About 85% of small business (5 to 20 employees) owners say that their exit plan is to sell to a third party. Let’s do the math. There are currently over 3,000,000 small business owners over 55 years old in the USA. We can assume that ... Read more Exiting a Small Business Part 1 Owners who are exiting a small business are often stymied by the range of choices in exit planning. Most literature on the topic discusses seven or eight avenues to exit. A sale to a third party can be to an entrepreneur, private equity (including family offices,)  or a strategic acquirer. Internal sales can be to family, or employees via  a Leveraged Buy-Out (LBO- often called a Management Buy-Out or MBO.) There is also a sale to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) or the oldest method in the book, closing down the company. While the jargon is appealing to those advisors who want to sound ... Read more Manage Activities; Lead for Results A few weeks ago I posted a comment in the Business Journals Leadership Trust Forum about a life lesson I learned. The difference between effort and outcomes – Manage Activities; Lead for Results. They reached out and asked if I could expand my comments a bit. Those of you who know me won’t find it surprising that it grew into an article. You can find it here. I hope you enjoy it. Remember, lead for results.   Invest 15 Minutes and take our FREE Exit Readiness Assessment. We do not request any confidential information. John F. Dini develops transition and succession strategies that allow business ... Read more Using Waterfalls in Exit Planning One of the most useful concepts in business planning is that of “waterfalls.” The analogy is apt, if perhaps less than perfect. Think of any outcome anticipated in a contract that is based on an “if…then” situation. It can likely be served by structuring waterfalls. I originally started using the term in buy/sell agreements. When a shareholder chooses to leave (or is forced out,) the options for purchasing his available stock are waterfalls. The first option may be for all the the shareholders to buy the stock in proportion to their existing ownership. If not all the shareholders wish to purchase, the “waterfall” or back-up ... Read more Is Google Making Us Stoopid? As an Exit Planner, most of my engagements involve assessing a management team. They may be the intended buyers of the company, or else they are key factors in the saleability of the business. The biggest and most frequent complaint I hear about managers is that they don’t know how to THINK. Business owners lament the inability of employees to discern critical paths, assess alternatives, or analyze complex problems. Examples of Thinking Shortfalls A CPA is doing a final review of a client’s tax returns, as prepared by an associate. As with many business owners, the client has two related entities, one acting as the ... Read more Video on Preparing for Your Exit Plan I contributed this video interview about preparing for your exit plan to SuccessionMatching.com for their recent Summit. It is about preparing what you need before starting your exit planning process. Succession Matching has made it available for free for another week. (requires creating a user name and password)   I hope that you enjoy it. Invest 15 Minutes and take our FREE Exit Readiness Assessment. We do not request any confidential information. John F. Dini develops transition and succession strategies that allow business owners to exit their companies on their own schedule, with the proceeds they seek and complete control over the process. He takes ... Read more Exit Planning Choices Podcast I had a nice conversation, on exit planning choices, in 2019 with Pat Ennis of Ennis Legacy Partners and Walter H. Deyhle of Gelman, Rosenberg and Freeman,CPAs, both in Maryland. Learn about your choices when preparing to create and implement your exit plan. Exit planning is about choices, get to know the choices that you have. Thanks for the invitation, Pat! You can listen (25 minutes) here. I hope that you enjoy. Invest 15 Minutes and take our FREE Exit Readiness Assessment. We do not request any confidential information. John F. Dini develops transition and succession strategies that allow business owners to exit their companies ... Read more « Newer EntriesOlder Entries »