Only 1 in 10 business owners have great exits that meet or exceed their expectations. Further, a survey by the Exit Planning Institute and Grant Thorton, PNC found 75% of owners had “sellers’ remorse”. This could have been prevented if they had the courage to truly KNOW to GROW to SELL their business and execute on the strategies that would have given them a great exit.
A great exit requires the owners have the courage to take a deep look at themselves, their teams, and their business to truly KNOW where they are at today, where they want to be for their great exit, and what it will take to bridge that gap. They need even more courage to take this knowledge and execute on the resulting strategies to GROW the business in anticipation of their exit. Closing the gap requires change and change is hard. It takes great courage to grow the people to grow the business instead of just doing what you've always done. Lastly, it takes great courage to "let go" to SELL your business. It is your baby and being open to negotiation and finding a deal that meets your personal, financial and legacy goals, takes patience, adaptability and the courage to hold the course in executing on your exit strategy.
This Deloitte article Injecting Courage into Strategy has some good points on courage that owners can use to help in driving the change needed for a great exit. Small-medium business owners can simply replace the references to "board" with "owners" and it will feel more relevant.
My observation over the last 14 years of doing this work is that it truly takes great courage from owners to do what is needed for a great exit.
I'd like to hear your thoughts on this, please comment and share.
You can download the Deloitte article at https://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/strategy-operations/monitor-deloitte/articles/courage-under-fire-monitor-deloitte.html
If you want an outside opinion on your exit readiness, and the things you can do to maximize value such as incorporating ESG, we have a pro-bono exit readiness assessment you can do in 5 minutes, that will give you some great insight, at no cost, no risk and no obligation. MExit – Value Builder PREScore - https://score.valuebuildersystem.com/prescore/proactv-business-solutions-inc/robert-welke
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