When you first open your small business, exiting it is likely the last thing on your mind. However, life may have other plans. Rather than play catch-up when it’s time to transition, explore how a five-year exit plan may simplify the process.
Year 5: Make the business easy to understand and run without you.
Year 4: Make the numbers repeatable with a finance playbook.
Year 3: Prove the numbers are repeatable without heroics.
Year 2: Choose a sale path and shape your balance sheet to match.
Year 1: Lift quality of earnings (QoE) and reduce perceived buyer risk.
