Business owners: 10 Tips for Planning Your Exit Strategy

As a business lawyer, my role is to help clients to either start, grow or sell their businesses. Lately, I came accross and excellent article in INC. magazine:

10 Tips for Planning Your Exit

Whether you're planning on selling your business, plotting the path toward taking your company public, or mulling the details of your succession planning, chances are Inc. has written about the experience. We've compiled tips gathered by our reporters from experts on making a smooth exit from your business – as well as a couple that exemplify what not to do when ducking out.

1. Know when to fold.

When first approached by Amazon, Zappos founder Tony Hsieh made clear his desire not to sell his online footwear sales company at any price. However, when conflicts within Zappos's board of directors led to lasting friction over the company's long-term goals, Hsieh started to reconsider the deal, he wrote. Finally, in 2009, a meeting with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos turned fruitful – and Hsieh says he realized that selling might yield something better for the company than continuing to deal with an unsupportive board.

2. Watch out for your employees.

Until you sign on the dotted line, remember, it's still your company and they're still your employees. And you might end up keeping the whole shebang should negotiations not work out in the end, so you need to consider your workers' point of view. Norm Brodsky learned that by helping out in an attempted sale of a company he founded, CitiStorage. He wrote for Inc., "As educational as the entire process has been for me, it has taken a toll on the morale of my employees, especially my senior managers. They've endured three rounds of due diligence and watched a parade of potential buyers come through the company. Each group of strangers in suits served as a reminder of the uncertain future we faced. I could almost feel the anxiety level in the building rise whenever a new group showed up. Staff members couldn't help wondering whether they'd still have jobs after a sale. Inevitably, the rumor mill cranked up, and we began hearing disgruntled noises from some key people." So, Brodsky says, as different companies came around to talk, he made sure that potential buyers dealt exclusively with his partner and him.

CLICK HERE to read the article in INC's magazine.