An exit strategy is simply the plan for how — and at what value — you eventually leave your business. Owners who plan it early exit on their own terms; those who don't are forced to take whatever the moment offers. Here's how to think about it.
The main routes are a third-party sale (to a strategic or financial buyer), a management or employee buyout, passing to family or a partner, or an orderly wind-down. Each has different tax, timing and value implications.
Start from your own goal: the number you need, the timeline, and how clean a break you want. That target drives every decision — from deal structure to how much of the business must run without you.
The gap between what your business is worth today and what it could be worth is where exit planning pays for itself: reducing owner-dependence, cleaning earnings, and de-risking the business before a buyer ever sees it.
The right structure and timing can be worth as much as the headline price. Planning several years out gives room to optimise tax, build a track record, and go to market when the business shows its full value.
It's the plan for how and at what value you eventually leave your business — whether by sale, succession, management buyout or wind-down. Planning it early lets you exit on your terms rather than the buyer's.
Three to five years before you want to leave is ideal. The earlier you start, the more value gaps you can close and the more you control timing, tax and deal structure.
Our Exit Planning service turns this into a defensible result.