Five Signs It’s Time to Start Planning Your Exit — Recap + Key Takeaway
By Rod Johnston, MBA, CMA
Two weeks ago I gave you five signs. Last week I gave you five things to do about each one. This week I want to bring it back together, because the five signs were never really the point. The pattern underneath them is.
Every owner who’s further along than they realize shows up in one of these five ways. And every one of them has the same root cause. Some part of you has already started planning your exit. You just haven’t said so out loud yet.
So here they are again, one more time, each with the single line I want you to actually remember.
Your business can’t run without you. Build the operating manual, then take a real week off and let your team prove it can run without you standing in the middle of it.
You’ve quieted down. Maintaining is a decision, and it shows up in your numbers on the day you sell. Get back to pushing the top line as high as it will go.
You catch yourself doing the math. Stop guessing. One real conversation with someone who values businesses like yours replaces the number in your head with a number you can trust.
Your best people could walk out the door and take a real piece of the business with them. Write down what only they know, quietly, before it becomes someone else’s leverage.
You genuinely don’t know what your business is worth. Get an actual valuation. You can’t plan an exit around a number you don’t have.
Here’s the key takeaway from all three weeks, the one thing I’d want you to walk away with if you forget everything else. None of these five signs mean you’ve waited too long. They mean the window is open right now, and the owners who walk through it early are the ones who end up with real choices later, on their own timeline, at their own price.
That’s the whole difference between an exit you plan and an exit that happens to you. If you read all three of these and saw yourself somewhere in them, I’d welcome the conversation. No pressure, no pitch. Just clarity.
High Mark Exit Advisors
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