End of the road?

In the business world, your professional career, your job, what is your end game? Do you have a goal to “be done by the time I turn___ years old”? What is your goal? Starting a business and selling it for a very comfortable profit- is that your goal? Climbing the corporate ladder to the top- is that your goal? Putting a good meal on the table for the family and retiring comfortably at the age of 65 is that your goal? Retiring by the age of 30, 40, 50 60,70? Is that your goal? Sometime we get mired in our professional/business life and are to busy solving todays problem and have no time to really plan for tomorrow or for the years of tomorrows we will have after “retiring”.

“I want to start a business- grow the business-make it profitable – and hopefully be able to sell it for enough money for me to retire on.”

I believe this to be a reasonable and fairly common goal among business owners and or entrepreneurs.

But I think, like a lot of complex situations, the devil is in the detail. Lets say you are enormously successful and able to financially to accomplish your goal and sell your business at the age of 30, 40, 50, 60 years old? Do you plan to then just relax, and play out your years playing golf, tennis, and waiting for the 5:00 Cocktail hour?

Is selling your business the end game, finishing point, or just a step or part of your business life? The demographics of where I live is such that there are many many people retired (ages 50-80) who we live among and interact with on a regular basis. The need to stay active physically and mentally is a priority for most of them, and these are generally people than can be retired and “do nothing.” Exit planning from a business requires careful thought and potentially some soul searching as well. Selling your business and retiring very often is not the end game rather the beginning of something new. There may be some people that can retire at the age of 35 and play golf, fish, play tennis for the next 40 plus years – And more power to them, but many cannot. And as we get wrapped up in the day to day task, opining to be out on a golf course day after day sounds pretty damn good. Do more than just daydream of retirement and recognize the need to have an exit plan. Take the time to consider your exit strategy to increase your chances for the best decisions for you and your family.

Image by Kiwi-Wings.