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July 30, 2004
Valuation and Exit Planning
Inc.com has a service to estimate the value of a small business. It is important to keep up with the value of any business. Valuation is a key part of exit planning, which should be a process that begins the first day you open your doors. This is even true if you plan to hold your business for twenty years. Even with that long a time frame, your plans for exiting your business (and everyone eventually does in some way or other) can affect many decisions you are facing today. In fact, once you are within five years of exiting your business, it really becomes short-term planning.
In addition to keeping up with its value, here are issues to keep in mind about exit planning for your business:
- Frequently re-examine your aspirations from the business through self-assessment
- Evaluate timing issues for your exit periodically to make certain the market will support your time frame. Sometimes exits must be moved ahead if market conditions warrant.
- Consider the ethical issues of exit plans. What do you want for your employees, customers and other stakeholders after you exit the business?
- Set specific financial goals, and the timeframe to achieve these goals, based on your aspirations related to wealth. Then establish a specific plan to meet these financial goals. This plan should be both strategic, but also tactical making clear commitments to action to meet your goal for exiting the business.
- Begin external audit or review process as any buyer will want your books verified. Three years is the minimum most will want to see.
- Evaluate the various exit options that make sense for your business and understand the implications for your decision making and planning for the next several years.
Posted July 30, 2004 08:37 AM
at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. He consults with a variety of businesses on start-up and growth related issues, and with larger corporations on re-establishing entrepreneurial cultures within their organizations. Dr. Cornwall's current research interests include entrepreneurial finance and entrepreneurial ethics. He has authored or co-authored four books.
