When do most entrepreneurs start thinking about selling their companies?
When they have gone through what I call the three cycles of business: There’s startup, when they’re thinking survival and making payroll. That lasts between one and three years. Then there’s the growth cycle, when the company is established and the founder is trying to grow it organically or through acquisitions. That can be anywhere from 10 years to 20 years or longer. Eventually, they go into wind-down mode, where they find themselves wanting to do something different, needing a change, and getting tired of running the company day after day. That’s when most of them think about succession planning. The more perceptive business owners, of course, start designing and implementing an exit strategy the day they buy or start the company. I tell people to run their business like it’s for sale every day, so that anytime there’s interest they can be ready. Keeping the end goal in mind and planning for an eventual exit is the smart way to do it. And what most people really want out of their c
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