which way
How will you get out of the
business when it’s time?
Plan your exit now so you don’t
leave money on the table.
EXIT? to the
What would you do if tomorrow you could not work in your business? Say, you suffer a heart attack, or you are
injured and cannot fulfill your duties.
What if health problems prevent you
from continuing to steer the company
forward? What if you die—or simply
want to take it easy, or retire? What if
you’re 35…or 82?
What will happen to your business,
your family, your lifestyle, your life’s work?
If you’re like most business owners—to be exact, 75 percent of privately
held businesses, according to a study by
PricewaterhouseCoopers—these what-ifs
might have crossed your mind but you
have no formal exit plan in place.
“Most owners are not thinking about
it and it’s not because they don’t think
exit planning is important. But they work
under a lot of pressure every day, they
have their hot list and this is not one of
those things that is urgent in their mind,
so they keep putting it off,” says Christopher Snider, owner and president, Aspire
Management Inc.
Thinking about how to start such a
process is daunting. Plus, who wants to
focus on the exit when there’s so much
going on in the present? “Exit is a nega-
