Exit Planning - Centerline Wealth Advisors

As a Business Owner, You Likely Have These Questions:

How much do I need to sell my business for?
How do I minimize the taxes I’ll pay when I sell?

How can I grow the value of my business to capture what it’s truly worth?
Who should I sell to? How do I find them?

A Personal Message From Our CEO to Small Business Owners

Did you know that 75% of business owners regret

their decision to sell and exit their business?

Why?
They didn’t plan

for their exit.

Like you, I am a small business owner who has poured my heart and soul into my business. It’s hard for me to imagine life without Centerline Wealth Advisors. However, we will all one day transition out of our business and begin a new adventure. Exiting a business can be an emotional, confusing, and complicated process. Just thinking about it causes most owners to procrastinate and delay the planning process. Having worked with business owners for years – and being one as well – I understand the concerns and confusion around the best way to begin – and the best way to succeed. So at Centerline we make it easy for owners by introducing them to our Exit Planning program Biz2Beach™, which can be perfect for you, no matter the stage of your business. By planning for your future now, you can help ensure greater satisfaction with your life after you exit your business. Even if that exit seems far down the road, planning now is a smart business strategy. Our Biz2Beach™ program helps you build value by showing you how to put systems in place to improve performance now, as well as how to reduce the hidden risks most businesses have. Don’t leave money on the table by being unprepared to sell your business or even unable to sell it at all. Our Exit Planning program has clear steps and deliverables that will help make an oftentimes overwhelming process much more manageable. From developing a financial plan to figuring out how you will pursue your passions in retirement to making sure your legal affairs are in order, Centerline Wealth Advisors helps you take specific steps to plan for your exit, allowing you to enjoy the wealth you have spent a lifetime creating.

Exit planning helps you maximize the value of your business and make sure you are ready for the day your exit arrives.

We subscribe to the Value Acceleration Methodology (VAM), a proven process that focuses on enterprise value by aligning your business, personal, and financial goals into a Master Plan for your future. VAM creates a roadmap towards a successful, satisfying and financially rewarding exit. The actions you’ll take are broken down into 90-day sprints that will allow you to take on big projects and tackle them in a manageable way. The very culture of your business will shift towards value creation, which will drive your business forward with immediate impact and benefits for the future. VAM is split into three “gates”: Discover, Prepare, and Decide. Throughout these gates, you will work on developing a plan for your future, making concrete changes within your business, and making sure you are prepared for your exit.

Discover

Triggering Event
Prioritized Action Plan
Clarity

Prepare

90-day Sprints
De-risking
Executing action plans

Decide

Grow or exit?
Revisit goals every 90 days
Analyze your exit options

GATE 1 | DISCOVER: THE TRIGGERING EVENT AND ACTION PLANS

The Triggering Event allows you to understand how businesses are valued; the strengths and weaknesses of your personal, financial, and business value factors; and where your business falls within the range of value. This is the process of taking off your rose-colored glasses and embracing the realities, and associated potential, of your business as it is today. After the Triggering Event, you will participate in several workshops over 90 days to develop your vision, long-term goals, and action plans. You will leave Stage 1 with clarity on both your personal and business future.

GATE 2 | PREPARE: DELIVERING ACTION PLANS

Execution of your action plans will require focus, reinforcement, and accountability. Five personal and five business actions will be assigned for 90-day sprints that will help minimize your risk and ready you for transition. You will participate in several workshops where progress on actions will be presented and new tasks assigned.

GATE 3 | DECIDE: GROW OR EXIT?

After completing two 90-day sprints you must decide whether to stay and grow your enterprise value or exit your business. If you decide to stay, you will continue with 90-day sprints now focused toward long-term strategic goals. If you decide to exit, you will analyze your options for selling both inside and outside the company. Many owners come into this stage wanting to take a certain path, only to discover a different option aligns more closely with their goals.

Value is Greater than Income

Owners are leaving money on the table because they are focusing on income generation and not enterprise value. Income does not automatically translate to value. You can have a very high net income, but if it is all because of your skill as a salesperson, then your business will have little value when you leave, and buyers will be hesitant to purchase it. While high income and sales are good for a business, true wealth creation lies in your multiple. The multiple will vary based on your industry so you have no control over its range. However, through good planning, you can control where your multiple lands within that range. By focusing on your company’s intangibles, which you will learn about during this program, you can increase this multiple and experience truly accelerated value creation.

Preparing for Your Exit and Beyond

The vast majority of business owners fall short in preparing for their eventual exit. This may explain why 75% of them regret their decision a year after they sell. Once you start the exit planning process you will be ahead of the 49% who have done nothing. With Centerline’s exit planning advisors at your side, we can make sure you are one of the few business owners who is truly ready – and fully prepared – to exit their business… with a plan for what comes next. Since Exit Planning is good business strategy now, the sooner you begin this process, the more valuable it becomes for you and your business.