“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”- and so the old saying goes. While most business owners are obsessed with revenue-generating activities, they rarely value the importance of having an exit strategy in growing their business.
Unknown to many, exit strategy is not only essential in limiting losses if ever your business stopped generating sales, or liquidate a venture once it has met its profit objective. It is also a requirement if ever you want to pass down your role as an owner to a new person, sell it when you want to retire, or just take an indefinite hiatus. This is also extremely critical if your business heavily relies on your expertise on a daily basis, for it helps the rest of your people to manage and continue the operations once you leave your business.
If you still don’t have an exit strategy for your business, then worry not. In this post, we would like to discuss how you can develop your own exit strategy that will help your business grow and still be successful long after you leave your office for good.
- Reevaluate your business.
Go back to your business plan. Look again for the end goal of your business. Do you want to sell it to the public? To your employees? Or pass the control to your heirs? With your exit strategy in mind, reassess your business every six months to reassure to yourself if you still have the same goals in mind.
- Know if your business’ goals are still relevant.
With the advent of new technology and online platforms such as social media and analytics that make data available in real time, the business landscape is quickly changing as well. These changes may have influenced your end goal as well. Identify what has changed in your business. Is your goal still relevant to the competitive landscape?
- Analyse if your brand still appeals to the market.
Is your brand still gaining traction to your customers, suppliers, and partners? To know this, you have to conduct a test and ask these people for their perception of your brand and current standing in the market. Use the data, along with your own perception and perspective for the final decision for your exit strategy.
- Document all your business’ processes
If you decided to continue your business operations without you, you have to ensure that all the key people in your company know what has to be done both today and long-term. That means you have to create a manual for your business.
Help the people who will take over your business by writing an instruction on how to operate your business. This will not only ensure that all the fundamental processes will be implemented but also gives you an opportunity to evaluate role in the business’s daily operations and understand how to step back.
- Find the Right Talents
If your business is in a stable, secure marketplace, and has a steady revenue stream, you can choose to make it your cash cow. However, you need to ensure that your business is equipped with the right people capable of running your business efficiently and competitively.
If you want to make sure that your business will grow, you have to bring qualified talented people in your business, and invest time and money in training those people. It can be very challenging to hand the daily operations over to your employees, but it’s a necessary step to ensure that your business will remain competitive after you vacate your office.
- Stop Being the “Only Answer”
Once you’ve created a clear process document and brought on a highly talented people, it’s time for you to step back and focus on business growth and marketing. Certainly, if you’re going to spend time on those items, you can’t be spending time managing your business! As long as you have managers or employees you can trust to make good decisions about your business, there’s no reason for you to be stopping by every day. Find ways to take off all those responsibilities and focus on being a business owner and not a business manager.
Consider all these tips when setting your exit strategy will certainly see improvements in its bottom line. Want to gain a competitive advantage in your pricing strategy today? Business Coaches Sydney can help! Call us at 1300 833 574 or send an email at info@businesscoachessydney.com.au.
Garret Norris
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