BEST PRACTICES
BEST PRACTICES/CONSULTING AND MANAGEMENT
PLANNING A SUCCESSFUL EXIT, YOUR NEXT CHAPTER
You’ve poured your life into starting, growing and operating a
successful business. Your peers, family, employees and suppliers
respect you for all that you’ve accomplished over the years.
What’s next? On the day you are ready to retire or do something
different, what do you want your business to do for you?
“Begin with the end in mind,” says Stephen Covey in his book,
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. You built your businesses
with a plan, and by planning your exit strategy you can be sure to
reap the benefits of your hard work. No matter where you are with
your business, an exit strategy plan is a necessary step towards
achieving your financial and personal / emotional goals. Your
business should absolutely be a part of your overall retirement
planning and a vehicle to wealth creation. The problem is many
small to mid-sized business owners do not view their company this
way and all too often fail to take the time to plan and implement
an exit strategy to maximize the financial return from the business.
The truth is real wealth is not made simply by starting and growing
companies. Real wealth is made by selling your company.
The secret behind financially successful entrepreneurs is that
they start thinking about selling or exiting their companies early
on. Specifically, these entrepreneurs create exit strategy plans;
plans that layout the roadmap for them to grow their company
so they can exit for the maximum dollar amount within a defined
time period. The important thing to note here is that when you
concentrate on building a business to exit, you set a very specific
set of strategies and goals in which to operate the business day
to day. The good news is that short-term success and long-term
success are NOT mutually exclusive; when you properly build your
business with a defined exit plan, you can maximize short term
operational effectiveness, revenues and profits, while preparing
your company for a multi-million dollar exit.
Christopher Morhardt is the President
and Founder of Florida based Pharus
Group, LLC and Managing Partner of
Pharus Global. He received his Bachelor
of Science degree from the University of
Massachusetts in Amherst and continued
his education in business administration
and entrepreneurship at the University
of Hartford in Connecticut. In addition to
multiple achievements and certifications
in small business practice, Morhardt has
been honored by the U.S. Small Business
Administration SBA in 2002 as Young
Entrepreneur of the Year and was presented
with two Torch awards from the Better Business Bureau BBB for
business integrity. As a “Serial Entrepreneur” having successfully
started, grown and sold multiple small businesses, Morhardt has over
28 years of successful business management experience and maintains
a proven strength in business analysis and implementation of success
strategies for improved performance and profitability. His diverse
background experience lends to an ability to balance practicality with
comprehensive solutions and problem solving skills.
CHRISTOPHER MORHARDT
A well prepared Exit Strategy Plan will consider other
aspects in addition to the financial goals of the entrepreneur.
For example; will the corporate culture be maintained, how
will your employees be treated, what will you do with your
time when you are no longer running the business, will you
stay involved in day to day operations of the business? There
are also several options to consider regarding the transfer of
ownership; private equity groups, Employee Stock Option Plan
(ESOP), transfer to family member or key employee. The choices
can be yours if a plan is designed and implemented properly.
In order to effectively execute your exit plan, it will require a
diversity of skill sets in business management. Additionally, you
will require the counsel of experienced advisors for tax issues
and legal agreements, etc. It is important to align your team
with the objectives that you have stated in your plan.
Creating an exit plan will provide a safety net of knowing the
best exit option for you and the company. This direction will
help align your day to day operations and strategic decisions,
so that your company is better prepared to reach its longterm
goals and for you to reach your personal objectives with
your exit. Pharus Group is uniquely positioned to assist in
this process by having experienced mergers and acquisition
professionals ready to design and implement a customized exit
strategy to meet your goals.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON PHARUS GLOBAL AND
THE RESOURCES AVAILABLE TO HELP GROW YOUR
BUSINESS STRONG, VISIT WWW.PHARUSGLOBAL.COM.
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