What facts matter when you are planning to exit your business? Strangely, a lot of them are very similar to those that may have been considered when you started your business all those years ago.
An overarching consideration is what are you trying to achieve? This might sound a little daft at first, but are you just trying to create personal wealth? Do you care passionately about the cause that your business supports? Do you want to be remembered and/or leave a legacy?
Think carefully on this; when you’ve sold or exited your business, will you feel truly satisfied? What do you want to do the day after you bank the money?
I remember working with a business where the plan seemed largely to be just getting out of the business for a chunk of cash. This was achieved with a fair bit of effort, but it was also obvious that a lot more could have been achieved if the business partners had been more open with each other. There was a clear opportunity to grow the business pretty quickly, put more process in pace and then exit. This would have opened the door to selling the business to the partners’ friends that worked in the business and for these new owners to carry on the good work that had started eight years earlier.
Often when people talk to you about a fact find before marketing your business they are just referring to balance sheet assets. Of course, that is important, but for your business exit some of the more personal facts must be considered.
So, the fact find is about collecting the facts from you personally and your business. And this business exit journey starts with clearly defining where you currently are.
