Women small business owner discusses exit strategy with a small business coach.

Whether for retirement, asset liquidation, or in pursuit of a new career path, every business owner should have an exit strategy. It’s a normal part of a business’ growth and lifecycle. Start strategizing for the future of your life, your retirement and your business. Here a few reasons why an exit strategy is crucial to your business.

Protect Your Business’ Value

A clean, clear exit strategy can help you set benchmark goals as your business grows. What many business owners don’t realize is that they are not their business, and their business is not them. As an owner, don’t you want to build something that can survive (and still provide jobs, income, products and services to people) without you?

Creating an exit strategy will help you shift value from you personally to the business itself and prepare it for a long future after you’ve stepped away.

Create A Smooth Transition For Your Management Team

Think back to one of your first jobs. What if, out of what may have appeared to be nowhere, the founder and CEO decided to leave the company and hadn’t created a plan to delegate tasks down the ladder. It would have been chaos.

Determining a pathway to prepare your managers to take on crucial roles will help them just as much as it’ll help your business and, importantly, won’t throw a giant monkey wrench in the gears when you’re finally ready to start your life’s next chapter.

Generate Income For Retirement Or Disability

Your business isn’t the only aspect of your life affected by your exit strategy (or lack thereof). As a business owner, the growth and profit of your business is likely driving when and how you retire. Investing time into small business coaching pairs you with a highly trained expert that can help you create a detailed strategy to exit your business when retirement comes.

A leadership coach who specializes in small business coaching can help you strategize the best ways to ensure your business can continue to grow without you and continue to provide income for you and your family well into retirement.

Creating A Strategic Direction For Your Business’s Growth

When you started your business or came into leadership within it, you had a vision for what you wanted it to become. Right now, you’re working toward making that vision a reality. When you’re ready to retire, you’re more than welcome to liquidate the business and dissolve it entirely. You could sell it off. But, if you had the option to pass the torch and let your legacy live on and grow after you’ve stepped away from your leadership role, why wouldn’t you?

On your own or with a small business coach, you can develop an exit strategy that works best for you, your business and everyone within it. Try working with a trained AdviCoach to learn more about what makes your exit strategy from your small business so important—and how to develop yours.