EXIT—Stage LEFT? or Stage RIGHT?

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.