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Exit Planning helps business owners set, sort through, and achieve
their exit objectives. It enables owners to leave their companies when
they want, to the successors they want, and with the amount of cash they
need.
Without exception, every owner leaves his or her company. Whether you
do it in style depends on the specific exit planning actions you take
before you leave.
“By the year 2005, virtually all
closely-held and family-owned businesses will lose their primary owner to
death or retirement.”
Dr. Joyce Brochaus, author of
Succession Planning
If you see ownership change in your future, we can help you plan a
successful business exit. We can help you answer the seven planning
questions located on this page and identify qualified advisors to help you
through the process.
Our Exit Planning Experience
As a Member of the BEI Network Of Exit Planning Professionals™, we have
access to its publications as well as to on-going training and information
about a variety of cutting edge Exit Planning techniques. We belong to a
nationwide network of professionals in other disciplines experienced in
the Exit Planning process.
What we offer business owners:
- We've guided numerous owners through "The Completely Revised How to
Run Your Business So You Can Leave It In Style Workbook for Owners and
Advisors," the blueprint for an owner's exit success. When we help you
to complete the Workbook, you will have a clear Action List stating
actions to be taken, due dates for each action and the name of the
advisor responsible for its completion.
- No-cost initial consultations to explain how the Exit Planning
Process works.
- Access to state-of-the-art Exit Planning resources.
- We maintain relationships with professionals in other disciplines
experienced in the Exit Planning process. We can help you to find the
advisors you need.
- We present seminars on a variety of Exit Planning topics. [Through
our affiliation with Business Enterprise Institute, we present seminars
on a variety of Exit Planning topics.]
Contact our offices to
discuss your Exit Planning needs.
Complete
a faxable Request for Information.
Register
for an upcoming Executive Briefing on Exit Planning.
White Papers:
- Business
Valuation White Paper
This White Paper discusses having your
business owner client use the services of an experienced business
appraiser to value their company as they transfer it to successor may
help them avoid an unpleasant encounter with the IRS and help them to
reap all of the value of their life's work. It also highlights the
importance of how obtaining a value helps to dispel many of the common
misconceptions that owners have about the value of their businesses and
what the values mean to their overall exit plan.
- Business
Continuity White Paper
This White Paper discusses four primary
problems sole-owned and co-owned companies face when an owner dies or
becomes disabled. It proposes solutions to each one of the four
problems. This White Paper includes the "Business Continuity Instruction
Form" for sole-owners.
- C
vs. S Corporation White Paper
What Difference Does It Make? Use
this White Paper to explain why the best form of business entity (C or
S) for tax purposes during a business's start up and operational years
may not be the best when it comes time to sell the business. Descriptive
case studies and clear tables help show owners why entity choice is so
important.
- Employee
Incentive Planning White Paper
This White Paper discusses the
paths which allow a business owner to leave a company in qualified
hands. Incentives can be equity-based or cash-based, but all plans
handcuff employees to the business and help it to accrue value. This
White Paper explores several plan options so an owner can determine
which path is best.
- ESOP
Opportunities White Paper
This White Paper uses a fictional
business owner to illustrate how an owner can use an ESOP to achieve
three ownership objectives: 1) to cash out at fair market value; 2) to
pay no taxes on the sale; and 3) to transfer the company to key
employees. While examining how ESOPs work, their advantages and
disadvantages, readers learn that ESOPs do not work for all owners or
for every company. They do, however, provide opportunity for some owners
to leave their businesses in style.
- Exit
Routes White Paper
When owners think about exiting their
companies, the number of exit routes might seem unending. In fact, there
are only eight. This White Paper discusses the advantages and
disadvantages of each one. Most importantly, it describes a process that
enables owners to choose the best exit path for them.
- Inevitabilities
White Paper
At some point, every owner leaves his or her business
- voluntarily or otherwise. This issue discusses the proven Seven-Step
Exit Planning Process™ designed to achieve an owner's financial and
other goals.
- Transferring
Your Company To Key Employees
Owners wishing to sell their
businesses to management (key employees) face one unpleasant fact: their
employees have no money. Nor can they borrow any-at least not in
sufficient quantity to cash out the owner. The transfer methods
described in this White Paper employ a long-term installment buyout of
the owner or use someone else's money to affect the buyout.
- Using
Short Term Key Employee Incentives To Increase The Price
One of a
business owner's greatest challenges is to attract, motivate, and keep
key employees. Keeping key employees is absolutely critical, however, if
the business is to be sold at the highest possible price. This White
Paper describes the design elements of a Stay Bonus Plan as well as how
to convert a long-term key employee incentive plan into a short term
plan.
- Value
Drivers White Paper
It is the job of every business owner to
create value in his or her business prior to any transfer or sale.
Exactly how do owners do that? read this White Paper to learn about
those characteristics (or Value Drivers) that buyers look for when
deciding how much to pay for a business.
- Transferring
Wealth To Children White Paper
Successful business owners often
wrestle with the issue of how to pass wealth to children in a way that
minimizes — legitimately — their tax bills. This White Paper explains to
owners how such a transfer can be designed as well as: why fixing their
own financial objective precedes any transfer; and, how to determine the
amount (and if that amount is too much) to be transferred. This White
Paper uses a case study to illustrate the plan design and includes an
explanation of GRATs. |
Exit Planning involves
answering "Yes" to seven questions:
- Do you know your exact retirement goals and what it will take — in
cash — to reach them?
- Do you know how much your business is worth today, in cash?
- Do you know the best way to maximize the income stream generated by
your ownership interest?
- Do you know how to sell your business to a third party and pay the
least possible taxes?
- Do you know how to transfer your business to family members,
co-owners, or employees while paying the least possible taxes and
enjoying maximum financial security?
- Do you have a continuity plan for your business if the unexpected
happens to you?
- Do you have a plan to secure financial independence for your family
if the unexpected happens to you?
If you answered "No" to any of these questions, please contact me to schedule your
Exit
Planning assessment.
The Exit Planning Review™ is an opt-in,
bi-monthly eNewsletter published by Business Enterprise Institute, Inc.
Click
here to read a sample issue, or register
for your complimentary subscription.
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