- May 2, 2018 -
When you're in your 20's...you eat, drink, and smoke what you want and don't really think about your mortality.
In the words of Rod Stewart and Bob Dylan (depending on your music preferences) you're "Forever Young."
And then middle age sets in and everything changes 🙂
You can't consume the amounts of food you once could...without consequences.
You throw your back out and can't figure out what the hell could have done it.
Your doctor starts harping on blood pressure, cholesterol, colonoscopies, skin exams, rectal exams, PSA tests!!
(And women? What you have to go through sounds like Medieval torture!)
Is nothing sacred anymore?
All of a sudden the bloom of immortality is off the rose.
Dylan's "Forever Young" is now sounding more like "Knockin' on Heaven's Door."
And I'm thinking it's time to have a proper will prepared. Haha.
When the real estate implosion pulled the rug out from under those of us in the mortgage industry in 2006-07, I didn't have an exit plan in place.
It was too late. My bad.
So watching my baby die a slow death was nothing short of excruciating.
...couldn't even sell my database.
Won't let that happen again.
When we work with some of our clients and bring this topic up...it's no surprise that most haven't even thought about business end-of-life goals.
People, do NOT make the mistake of thinking you've got plenty of time.
I'm not being a fatalist...
I'm just being a no b.s. realist! This topic is rarely talked about.
As you think about an exit plan, you have two basic options:
+ Do you want to be an acquisition target?
Every acquisition is different - each comes with its own set of challenges.
With so many potential deal structures out there and the valuation of a target company so tricky, acquiring a business is less science and more of an art.
Strategy is everything.
+ Is passing the business on to family members a goal?
With Cheryl's dad's passing, the transfer of his business to her brother went seamlessly...but it took years of planning ahead of time.
Regardless of the exit plan, the end goal is the same:
1) Develop and protect your IP (Intellectual Property.)
I'm not a lawyer so not going into details here...but I'm talking about more than just copyrights, trademarks,patents, and trade secrets.
For sure, we always recommend using the appropriate trademark symbols as soon as you put your product to market. Whether you have registered them yet or not, this gives the public notice that you have considered your intellectual property protections and are prepared to enforce them.
But don't forget to make sure your contracts, terms, privacy statements are all up to snuff.
2) Document the heck out of your processes.
Tedious? Yep.
Critical that you have an easy way to hand over your procedures? YES.
At my current middle-aged (looking forward to eventual retirement) stage of life, our business model now is simple...
Build > Make Highly Profitable > Sell.
Haven't thought about these issues but know you need to? Request a free consult with us and we'll get that party started.
Make it a good one!
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