Five Signs It’s Time to Start Planning Your Exit — Reader Question Answered

By Rod Johnston, MBA, CMA

After three weeks on this topic, one question stuck with me more than the others, so I want to answer it here instead of just replying in the comments.

“I recognized myself in three of your five signs, but I’m not planning to sell for another one to five years. Isn’t it too early for any of this?”

No. One to five years isn’t too early. It’s actually the best amount of time to have. The owners who get the best outcomes aren’t the ones who start planning the year they decide to sell. They’re the ones who started one to five years out, while there was still room to fix what needed fixing.

Think about what actually takes time. Building a management layer so the business doesn’t depend on you personally isn’t a six month project. Documenting what only you know, cross training your best people so no single departure sinks a deal, growing the top line instead of just maintaining it, all of that takes years, not months. Start now and you get to do it on your own schedule instead of scrambling once you’ve already decided you’re done.

And there’s a second reason one to five years out is exactly the right time. Nobody has to know. You aren’t listing your business. You aren’t telling your team. You aren’t signaling anything to your customers or your competitors. You’re just quietly running a better business, the kind that happens to be worth more and easier to sell whenever you eventually decide to.

And if you’re reading this thinking none of that fits because you’re ready to sell now, not in five years, you haven’t missed anything either. Late is a story owners tell themselves. It isn’t a real category. Whatever runway you have left, a month or a decade, the same three things matter: get a real valuation, get your best people locked in, and get honest about what still runs through you personally. We just do them faster when the timeline is shorter.

So wherever you are on that timeline, five years out or five months out, none of it means you’re behind. It means you’re finally looking. That’s where every good exit actually begins.

If you’ve got a question of your own, send it my way. I read every one, and if it’s one I hear a lot, I’ll answer it here.

High Mark Exit Advisors

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