
How many "Boomer" business owners out there wish they would have sold their company a few years before the Great Recession?
This past year I attended, for the first time, a seminar on Mergers and Acquisitions, as I wanted to gain knowledge in the steps/processes of buying and selling businesses.
As with all seminars, Webinars, podcasts and books, you always take away a nugget that will help you in your business and in your life. The nugget I got from the speaker of this seminar was, that he said, "The same day you acquire or start a business, should be the same day you start preparing an EXIT PLAN."
That statement hit me right between the eyes!
Why? Because I never thought I needed an EXIT PLAN. I assumed, when I wanted to sell or pass my business on to family, I would gather the information needed, talk to my lawyer and accountant, and make it happen. It would be just another project.
Well, if I had been planning my eventual "EXIT—Stage RIGHT" I would have given even more thought about intangibles. Thank God, due to our systematic approach to business, we had many intangibles in place; however, I am now more focused on them and I have been diligently working on my EXIT PLAN for when that day comes.
What are "intangibles" for a business?
Simply stated, they’re those things that separate a business from other similar businesses, and those things that some would consider unimportant items, a buyer would be looking for, when acquiring a business. Intangibles are those things that give a company more value than the average, same-size company in the same industry.
During the seminar we were given many examples of intangibles, and the speaker asked the attendees to make a list of our company's intangibles.

Philip Beyer, founder/president of Ebiz Products LLC and founder of Beyer Printing Inc. in Nashville Tenn., is a chronic entrepreneur, business systems analyst and consultant. Author of "System Busters: How to Stop Them in Your Business" and recipient of an InterTech Technology Award for the design and development of System100 business process management software. Beyer speaks to business owners across the country on how to bring lean, sustainable order to their businesses. Contact him at (615) 425-2652.