Forget about selling your business and focus on increasing the value. If you do it right you'll have options.

 

9 Tips for Creating Options and Exiting Well

1. Not sure where to start, get a qualified team. Engage experts in Operations, Finance, Sales & Marketing, Human Resources and Legal. Make sure they understand what is needed to exit a business successfully.

 

2. You need to be irrelevant. Stop working in the business and start working on the business. Pull away from the day to day responsibilities and spend quality time looking at the present and future of your industry and your business. 

 

3. Only do what you love to do. Get back in touch with why you loved building this company. Re-energize yourself and enjoy the journey. You won't feel as pressured and wind up making the wrong deal.

    

4. Fix the broken stuff. People, systems, finance etc. Often it is the unwillingness of the owner to make the tough decisions that will be their downfall. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck it won't fix itself, or it would have already. 

   

5. Get your sales and marketing updated and aligned. Make sure they're working in an integrated effort. Good sales and marketing are key to your success.

 

6. It's not just about great sales numbers. Great operations and strong financial controls deliver profitability and desirability as well. 

 

7. Add at least 4 years on to your exit strategy. Count on 1 year to do the deal and 3 more to ease your way out. The new owners will likely require your participation to provide experience, industry introductions, continuity with staff, vendors, and customers.

 

8. Not sure when you want to exit? Run improvement efforts parallel to the process, as you don't know how long it will take and you just may change your mind.

 

9. Create options. It's not always black or white, selling or closing. Sometimes you just need to develop options.