You probably own a business or operate within a small group of owners.

You’re passionate about having freedom with your time and money. You’re also driven to provide for business stakeholders, family, and personal interests.

Recently you’ve been thinking about exit planning. The problem is, you’re not sure how to start. And there are a lot of variables.

Since the business is likely 70% - 80% of your net worth, you face the real danger of not having a contingency plan. This puts your stakeholders, business, and family at risk.

To enjoy a happy post-business life, it’s critical to understand both your financial and emotional needs.

We’re here to help. We’ll show you how to look at your business as an asset with transferable value, so it can be sold.

Here are some business strategies we use with your other advisors to help you:

Creating Your Target Date

This can be an actual date when you want to exit your business or it can be a date when you measure a key milestone.

Articulating Your Target Personal Interest or Vision

You need to know what’s next in life. You never want to regret leaving your business because there was nothing better waiting after the exit.

Projecting Your Target Financial Needs

You need to project your net worth in order to maintain your lifestyle for the future. This involves calculating your after-tax needs on an annual basis.

Determining Your Target Gap

Your personal assets can be stress-tested and projected out to your target date. This value is subtracted from your target financial needs. The difference will reveal whether you have a gap in your personal assets.

Growing Your Financial Net Worth

This is where you design an asset portfolio for your target financial needs. The target gap must be filled by your business, which is usually the largest asset in your portfolio.

Optimizing Your Transferrable Value

Every business is in a state of change – decline or growth. If the business isn’t trending upward, then it is stalled or declining. Value without transferability is like owning a unique painting that no one else appreciates.

Protecting Your Business Value

One day you’ll exit your business. The question is whether the exit will be planned or unexpected. Have you taken steps to minimize the impact of one of the five Ds – Death, Disability, Divorce, Disagreement, or Departure.

Revealing Your Gaps

The target gap is needed for exiting, but you may be facing two other gaps – profit and value. Lost profits mean less resources to attain your target financial needs. Additionally, the multiple used in valuing the tangible asset will not likely be “best in class.” A lower multiple means a lower sale price for your business.

Understanding Your Four Intangible Capitals

Whether a buyer is willing to pay a higher multiple depends on the strength of your business intangibles. These include Human Capital, Customer Capital, Structural Capital, and Social Capital.

Viewing Your Scorecard

The true test of your success is in both marketplace and industry standards. Even if you’re beating your previous period, you may still be underperforming when compared to your competitors or industry trends.

We’d love to use these strategies to help you.

As a result, you'll become better engaged with your business from an executive perspective.

You'll create a company that is ready to be sold if you receive an unsolicited offer.

Most importantly, you'll have a profit-generating business, enabling you to invest in other retirement assets.