proven Process

At the core of our business model is a conviction that most exit and succession strategies lack clarity around the business owners personal, financial, and business objectives. We are on a mission change that. So our process starts with getting clarity around the what is most important to the owner(s).

Once we have clarity around the owner(s) objectives, we are ready to a general assessment that gives us a high level view of the owners exit goals and how they relate to the personal, financial, and business realities.

Based on this assessment, we provide a succinct engagemement proposal that outlines the path forward, milestones, and deliverables.  

Now we are ready to take a deep dive into the exit and succession strategy and planning. This step goes deep to asking several key questions:

1. When doo you want to exit?

2. What are your financial requirements?

3. What is the value of the business today?

4. How Attractive is your business?

5. How ready is your business to transfer to successful transfer to someone else?

6. Who are you envisioning the buyer is? 

There are several different methods and approaches to valuing a business. For our purpose of benchmarking, we use a directional valuation approach. We believe that spending thousands of dollars on a valuation is pointless until you know where you are going. This does not mean you don't need a valuation or hire a valuation expert. What it does mean is this process will give you the clarity to know who to hire and what type of valuation in is needed (estate planning, succession planning, strategic or financial buyer). 

In the clarity process, it is important to get agreement on the value of business before moving to the next step. This will remove any hesitation or confusion as we look at scenarios and options.

Now it's time to pull it all together to see what is possible. This is the phase where we see all the pieces of the puzzle and create an exit vision. Using all the data we collected, an exit/succession planning roadmap will appear. It will show us what scenarios and options align best with the business owner's personal and financial objective. It will address how to fill the 3 main gaps (value, profit, and wealth). It will address "who" needs to be on the team to make this all happen. It will create a project timeline to ensure we are sustaining momentum.

This phase cannot be overstated. The previous step are important but the is step is mission critical. Without a strong conviction that leads to taking action, all the planning will be a huge paperweight sitting on your desk.

In order to avoid this, our actions plans come with 90 day miles stones that track and access progress. Each member of the of the exit planning team will be accountable to deliver on their scope of work.