Five conversations can put you on the path to a happy and successful exit. These conversations need to be open and honest, revealing your desire to exit the business eventually. They need to be handled intentionally and carefully, with preparation and practice, because there is a real danger you may do more harm than good. Ideally, the conversations need to happen well before you exit (we suggest about five years,) when you still have time to take the right advice coming out of these conversations and put it to use. Waiting until just before you exit to have these conversations negates the opportunity for positive action arising out of them, and risks alienating people who care about you and the business, and feel disrespected for not being included much earlier.
The five conversations are with the following relationships:
These five relationships are critical for your exit success. How you approach these relationships—through the conversations you have with them—will go a long way to determine if you exit happily or not. As long as you have not disclosed your exit aspirations with these key relationships, you cannot be entirely honest with them for fear of creating potential problems for you and your company. Your ability to lead the business and work effectively with these relationships will be compromised. You will find yourself making critical exit-related decisions that impact the business, partners, employees, customers, key suppliers or advisors, and your family, keeping them in the dark about your intentions, and where you are trying to lead things. Misalignment, tension, friction, and frustration are nearly certain to ensue.
The longer you wait to have these conversations, the greater potential your exit success will be undermined, or you may even cause harm to your relationships with your business partners, employees, customers, and family members. The business may suffer. Millions of dollars may be lost. Consider the following real examples we have encountered, all of which occurred because of business owners who never had a productive exit conversation with these relationships:
Conversations with the five relationships will not guarantee you a happy and successful exit. However, if you fail to have the conversations with these five relationships, your exit likely will be more stressful, riskier, and costlier than if you have the conversations. To plan these communications takes a modest amount of time. In return, you may create thousands to millions of dollars in increased net business value, years of continued good relationships, and uncountable benefits in reduced stress and avoided problems. On a dollar-for-hour basis, these conversations may be the most valuable time you spend during your entire career as a business owner.
To get started, review this helpful information about the 14 most common exit planning questions. Then, contact us to discuss your specific situation.