| Overview |
|
|
The Right Way To Exit A Business: Step One - Planning Step Two - The Transition Step Three - Success Another option might be approaching your financial advisor. Financial advisors would love to see the liquidity event because they would then have products upon which they could be commissioned and feed and invested. But prior to the liquidity event, and similar to the attorney’s role, most financial advisors are not structured or incented to assist with setting up a proper exit.
A business owner, finally, may go to a business broker, or M&A transactional provider. This may seem the most logical place to go, because these are the people who are in the business of transferring privately held businesses. But once again this is a poor place to start. The second of the formidable challenges is dealing with the psychological changes of exiting a business. Like snowflakes, every exit and every business owner is different. As one mergers & acquisitions advisor put is ‘each deal is a ‘small miracle’’. This challenge is one of self analysis. To take people who have survived seemingly impossible challenges over a long duration of time and to bring that to a sudden end creates tension in the mind, and by extension, the body of business owners. Business owners are well served to examine what the business means to them on a personal level as well as how their daily habits will be impacted by the exit. In other words, how will their life change as a result of this business exit? I believe that the best way to exit a business is to begin with the business owner’s motives. What is it that the business owner wants from their lifetime of dedication to the business’s survival, and success? If the business owner can answer what it is they want, then there are a number of ways to go about achieving it through the exit of a business and that is not solely meaning that the business must be sold. In fact, there are dozens of ways to transfer shares of a privately held business that helps protect the business owner’s wealth and achieve the goals that come from that business owner’s motives. Many business owners today have a need to exit their business; millions, in fact. A large percentage of these business owners would like to see the business continue with other family members. These statistics demonstrate that there is a low probability of success in intergenerational transfers of the business. This seminar will discuss in detail those statistics, but highlights that the probability could be increased with the proper planning and with better information on transferring the business. I thank you for your interest in our seminar and congratulate you, the business owner, on a lifetime of success and on a transition into your next stage of life. And a successful transition it will be. Informational Links:
|