Are You Ready?
If you think you're ready to exit your business, you need to consider the following check points.
You have spent some time and money getting educated on the process of how to transition your business, and you have discussed this with your loved ones.
Your personal, financial, and business goals are aligned; meaning they are defined, co-dependent, and linked.
You have established a trusted transition advisory team.
You have created and reviewed with key advisors and family members a contingency plan which should include buy-sell instructions, appropriate insurance, and specifies what should happen if you can no longer operate the business.
You have completed a business valuation, and personal, financial, and business readiness assessments within the last year.
You have considered all of your exit options, defined an optimum deal structure, and have weighed the pros and cons of each in relation to your stated goals and objectives.
You have a written transition plan.
You have designed and documented a life-after-business plan and it is correlated to your wealth management plan.
You have pre-transition value enhancement and preliminary due diligence projects underway to de-risk the business, maximize its value, minimize taxes upon transition, and improve the probability of a smooth transition to the next owner (including family).
You have a management development program underway to ensure that post-transition leadership is capable and prepared to operate the business without you at the helm.