That’s what exit strategy planning is all about; it’s creating a finish line for your business. If you are raising venture capital for a start-up, you know the investors are going to want to know how and when they are going to cash out, whether by merger or IPO.  Every owner should have an exit strategy, if simply for their own sanity. “I’ll do this for five years, then evaluate”…”I’ll prepare my business to be sold to a competitor in seven years”…”I’ll pass it on to my children after they get out of college”…”I’ll sell to my management team”…by developing a plan you will aim your business in that very direction.

Of course, these days many owners are just looking to survive. Their banks are more demanding, their customers are paying more slowly, their suppliers are hounding them for payments.  It is hard to focus on the future, the finish line, when you can’t see past this week. But without an exit plan in place, the decisions you make today may actually be pulling you further away from your goals.

So, if you do not have an exit plan, make it your personal goal to create one or get an advisor to help. Your plan will help you align your resources to get the business where you want it to be, ensure you have the right management team, and that you are targeting the correct market segments. Your company’s technology, brand, customer base, systems, processes, business model, and other intangible capital will all be affected by the exit plan. Your personal exit plan will cover your personal finances as well as transitions in your lifestyle  (“What are the tax implications of your exit options?”  ”What will I do when I am no longer running my business?”) – even more reason to think through and plan for your exit.

Remember, to get to the finish line successfully, you’ll need a plan.

As noted at the bottom of last month’s Trekking, I completed the Baltimore Marathon on October 10.  Finishing the marathon achieved a personal goal, after a few months of long training runs (three over twenty miles) and overcoming a little nervousness. My time of 4:37 means I ran an average of about 10:30 per mile, which isn’t really that fast, but with the hills and the humidity, I’m satisfied.  I’m proud to have completed the run and have the pictures to prove it.

The easy thing to do here would be to compare the building of a business to the running of a marathon. So let’s do it.

For both, they start with an idea or a spark. Maybe the idea for your business came out of nowhere or maybe you prepared for it for what seems like ages. For me, the idea of running a marathon arose after a challenge in a watering hole after a short 5-K race in Somerville, MA last December. But that’s another story for another time. I’m sure you can just as easily remember when the idea, or spark, for your business first came to you.

For both, you need a plan. Everybody recommends that business owners should have a business plan as a way to address financing needs, management depth, market analysis, required resources and the production and distribution process. For a marathon, your plan will call for you to start months ahead of the race so you can build up mileage to get in a few long runs of 20 plus miles and not get hurt. Let me tell you, my running plan looked daunting at the outset as I’m sure your business plan seemed when you first outlined it.

For both, you need to execute the plan. The running of the business is a demanding, all-consuming process. The running of the marathon is all-consuming for the time you are on the roads in training as well as during the race. And for both, even though you have a well thought out plan, you’ll need to be flexible and willing to adjust your plan as you move forward with it. Even the best laid plans need to be tweaked.

For both, the performance and outcome will be a direct result of how well you trained and executed the plan. Your success will mirror your ability to deal with the bumps in the road, in the economy, and in your life (and hopefully the issues of dehydration and cramping will only relate to running a marathon). At the completion of both, hopefully, you can look back with pride on your accomplishments.

Mike Oleksak  2009