Two Key Questions for Your Business to Kick Off 2019

By Generational Equity

01/07/2019

Happy New Year one and all! We trust that your holidays were filled with great times with family and friends and that you are back, refreshed and ready for a fantastic 2019.

If you are like most folks, you did some reflecting on 2018 as the year drew to a close. Some of you probably also created New Year’s Resolutions where you gave yourself specific personal goals to work towards in 2019.

Did you do the same for your business?

If so, kudos to you. But drilling deeper, did you also reflect on your exit journey? Did you think about two questions in particular:

• When do I want to exit?
• How do I want to exit?

Thinking About the Future of You & Your Business in 2019

We encourage business owners who attend our exit planning conferences to look long and hard at those two questions. That’s because the answers have a significant bearing on the financial legacy you want to create and leave behind for your family, your employees, and your community.

The first question is fairly standard. Picking a time frame and working towards it seems pretty obvious right? However, in our experience far too many business owners decide to reach out to us only when external circumstances force them to.  

This leads automatically to the second question: how do you want to exit? Do you want to be in control of all your options, or do you want to take the first offer you receive when desperation due to illness, family squabbles, recession, loss of a key customer, etc., sets in?

History is littered with sad stories of many, many family-owned businesses forced into a fire sale at the 11th hour despite having a well-run, profitable, growing entity. This can impact the family’s financials for decades, not to mention leave a lasting impact on the business, its employees, its customers, and its vendors.

Start 2019 with a Successful Exit Strategy

We will keep this first post of 2019 short since I am sure you (like me) are scrambling now to get caught up with your work (and trying to figure out how to lose the 10 pounds you gained over the holidays). While you’re on the treadmill, keep these two questions in mind at the start of your year:

• When do I want to exit?
• How do I want to exit?

Your thoughtful consideration of these two questions may help you make the most important business decisions you make all year!  Attending a Generational Equity exit planning conference can really help you with both of these questions.  If you would like to learn more, use the following links:

What you will learn at a conference

How to find one near you

Contact us for more information

By Carl Doerksen, Director of Corporate Development at Generational Equity.

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