Exit strategy planning (which we call "ESP") is the structured process whereby business owners can maximise their exit value and personal satisfaction through careful planning. Briefly, this involves developing an exit programme, or road map, which covers the following key steps:

• Ensuring your business structure is tax effective
• Entering into agreements with your co-principals to facilitate your exit
• Choosing the optimum exit option
• Grooming your business to improve its value
• Removing impediments to sale
• Preparing and implementing a master exit strategy plan
• Integrating your personal financial planning with your business exit planning, and
• Achieving a successful disposal of your business for the maximum after-tax price

The key to successful ESP is to choose the optimum exit strategy for the business and to groom the business for disposal through this option. Often business owners confine their thoughts to a trade sale, overlooking a possibly more favourable exit option, which could include:

• A flotation (or public listing)
• Franchising or licensing
• A management buyout
• A merger
• A family succession, or even
• An orderly wind down

This lack of foresight could severally limit the possibilities of maximising their exit price and retirement prospects.

Some private business owners overlook ESP completely, despite the fact that most of them are in business to build a capital asset and all of them must leave their businesses some day. Building capital value is the difference between being in business and working for somebody else: so it makes good sense to maximise exit value by long term planning.

A good way to start thinking about exit is to analyse your own business and personal aspirations. We make this easy for you by providing a business owner's Self-Diagnostic Form. Clicking on the Self-Diagnostic page link will take you to the relevant page.

Once you have completed the self diagnostic form you could return it to us and arrange a meeting to consider some of the you questions you were unsure of, such as "What is my business worth?", or "What is my optimum exit option?" Following this meeting you might believe that commissioning a Diagnostic Report is an extremely useful starting point for your exit planning journey.