Exit Strategy: There are just six exit options

Every entrepreneur exits. It’s one of the absolute certainties in business. As a business owner, one of the most important things to do is to begin planning your exit strategy long before your target exit date.

Once you become a business owner, there are just six exit options:

1. Transfer ownership to a family Member

2. Sell the business to an employee

3. Sell the company to an outsider

4. Become an absentee owner

5. Liquidate the business

6. Run the business until you die

You can choose any option and each option has multiple factors.

Chances are you're focused on building your business, not the day you will leave it behind. But failing to plan for your exit/transition out of your business can result in a messy succession process and lost value.

Having established that exiting is unavoidable, a wise business owner plans an exit strategy while still many years away from departure and runs the business with the view of securing the best possible price/outcome when the time comes.

What’s your exit strategy?