“I wish we met you two years ago.”
The most common feedback I get.
The problem with low urgency, high importance work like exit planning is that it rarely reaches the top of the agenda, and so, come sale time, it’s a mad scramble to tidy things up. Business owners are under no illusions: when it comes to exit planning, discipline is often lacking.
The problems happen where there are things that need changing which also need time to season. Rectification of lease terms, establishment of a pattern of dividends, actually warming up logical purchasers with several years in advance so exit isn’t at emergency levels by the time it appears on their radar: just a few things that come to mind.
It’s a really hard psychological shift, but people need to understand that private businesses are just like other investments. You would really do well to understand how you are getting out as early as possible, ideally, the day you get in. In other words, having the discipline to plan it.
75% of business owners that sell, profoundly regret it 2 years later. I strongly believe it’s because they leave things on the table they realise after the sale, they never had to.
They say you get a choice in life: the pain of discipline, or the pain of regret.