Collaboration in 21-Step Exit Planning

An Exit Planning Advisor Does More than Just Plan. 

Several advisors have asked me about collaboration in 21-step exit planning, specifically who to introduce and when.  

An exit planner does more than plan. They also help an owner procure adjacent professional services when necessary. 

When done well, this will only ever help with your core business, since it is effectively the engineering of a community. 

The below is a non-exhaustive list of typical* specialists brought in, in order of each step, and some of the common challenges that those specialists can help with.

*You're not obliged to introduce all of these specialists as it naturally depends on what each client actually needs.

Steps 1 and 2:

Who: Business or Life Coaches

Example: The utility of visualization in bringing about positive outcomes. 

Step 3:

Who: Valuation Specialists and CPAs

Example: Determining which business valuation methodologies work and when 

Step 4:

Who: Financial Advisors

Example: Consult in pressing financial risks and opportunities, as well as getting specific about the wealth gap. 

Step 5:

Who: Attorneys and Insurance Brokers

Example: Replacing poorly penned or imaginary shareholder agreements and backstopping them with appropriate funding arrangements.

Step 6:

Who: Project Managers and Consultants

Example: Making risk management a habit.  

Step 7:

Who: Organizational Psychologists

Example: Many owners have a hard time with role identity fusion and the accompanying separation anxiety, and it can be tricky to unpack this. 

Step 8 and 9:

Who: Fractional CFOs

Example: Best practices in forecasting profit and financial targets and hitting them.  

Step 10:

Who: Project Managers and Consultants

Example: Taking good risk management habits and baking them right into a culture itself. 

Step 11:

Who: Marketing and Branding Experts

Example: Expanding the impact these efforts have from revenue to the value of the business itself.  

Step 12:

Who: Governance Specialists like non-executive directors and subject matter experts

Example: the benefits of corporatizing an historically small or medium business so that it can break through to the next level by gaining access to new markets and opportunities. 

Steps 13, 14 and 15:

Who: Employees and ESOP Specialists

Example: Transitioning into ownership (even if it's partial) in an orderly and responsible fashion via an ESOP. Management conventions like EOS are often very complimentary to these sorts of endeavors. 

Step 16:

Who: CPAs

Example: Planning a transaction rather than suffering the tax consequences after it's done (and already too late).  

Steps 17 and 18:

Who: M&A Intermediaries and Brokers

Example: The wild world of transactions and the mountain of war stories that go along with that.  

Steps 19, 20 and 21:

Who: Financial Advisors and Estate Attorneys

Example: Shielding the legacy of the owner who has now achieved a tidy exit. 

My experience working in the industry has given me a large library of war stories and case examples I'd be happy to share! If you'd like to discuss any of these collaboration examples, or have other questions about the invaluable role you play as an advisor, let's connect! Use the calendar below to book with me or feel free to reach out directly. 

Talk soon, 

-Sam Walters, VP of Client Relationships