What makes a business owner become motivated to sell their business?  Most reasons can be broken down into a few general areas, (i.e. financial, health, personal) but really it is about our attitude.  As SBO’s we are required to fill our own personal batteries and be the energizer bunny for the battles each day.  We stress when work is too busy and then when it is too slow.  We worry about cash flow, the economy and our key employees.  We worry about our image, our brand and our personal life and that’s only by 9:00am.  We are optimists who actually believe that the product or service we provide will make the world a better place and we will become rich.

The unfortunate part is that this optimistic personality trait is also what makes us so unprepared in the exiting of our businesses.  Whether it’s through a sale, transfer or closing we have a difficult time planning for the exit because we honestly have no idea how to do so.   It’s not easy to understand, every business is different… and there is no one we feel can provide us the comprehensive information we need.

I had an interesting meeting with my financial planner and he asked how much money I needed to have saved to retire and how old I wanted to be.   He took that information, plugged it into a program and it spit out that I needed to put $20,000/yr after taxes for the next 20 years.  That’s a great plan except I don’t know how to come up with that kind of money.  He said I could live on less, work longer or change my goals, but at least we starting talking about a plan after work.  The interesting thing is that he never asked about my plan for leaving my business.  Here I am planning my future and my largest asset (I hope) has no plan at all.

The reality is that most SBO’s don’t know that there are a few standard steps that all business owners should follow when considering leaving their business.  Just like in financial planning, the further ahead you plan the better the chance you have of achieving your goal.  All you have to do is to decide that it is time to start thinking about it and get motivated.  Just as a side note, in the Venture Capital world, as part of your business plan you must show your exit plan for them to consider investing.  So if all the rich guys do it, don’t you think we should too?  It’s not really about if you should plan for it, but why aren’t you? Get motivated and learn.

Over the next few posts I will explain the steps that should be considered so at least you start to know what you need to know.  So get motivated, you know it is a good idea and I will help you. The first step will be called Goals and Objectives.      I will try to include some real life stories from my business clients I’m personally working with so you know that you are not alone.  Please feel free to add your comments or experiences as they might add additonal insight for others.  Let’s learn together.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 23rd, 2009 at 9:33 pm and is filed under Sell Your Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.