NAVIX’s most popular ebook, “Your Last Five Years: How the Final 60 Months Will Make or Break Your Exit Success” has been newly updated and republished since its first release five years ago. Business owners can download the new ebook for free here.
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NAVIX CEO recently had the pleasure to be a guest on The Leadership Hacker podcast. If you enjoy podcasts, and want to learn more about preparing yourself and your company for exit, check out Patrick’s interview on your favorite podcast platform.
While many companies, their owners, and their leadership teams struggle with severe economic impacts from the COVID-19 virus, many other companies, and their owners are increasingly eager to move forward with planning their business exit. Here in the US, millions of US Baby Boomers still own companies. They are quickly reaching a point where they want a clear path to a successful exit—without waiting for another five to ten years to get there, and without having to go through yet another recession or other calamity. In response, we have several existing resources here at NAVIX to help business owners assess how ready you may be to exit, and what you should consider doing to best achieve your exit goals.
In one of the Star Wars movie’s pivotal scenes, Darth Vader attempted to lure his son Luke Skywalker to the dark side of the Force, warning “You don’t know the power of the dark side.” Luke’s skill and talent with the Force made vulnerable to the dark side, and thus the target of his nefarious father’s attention.
There is a powerful lesson here for business owners like you. Your skills and talents may come back to haunt you when you ultimately try to exit from your businesses. Within many companies, the owner is the most valuable and vital employee. Your knowledge, relationships, and vision are what drives the business. Undoubtedly you have help—no CEO/owner build a sustainable business by himself or herself. However, for years or even decades, much of your company growth has mostly been due to your personal presence and efforts. Then, one day, you wish to exit. If at that time you remain an essential employee, you may be unable to achieve commonly held exit goals: financial freedom, a sustained business legacy, and an exit on your own terms. You may find yourself in the dark side, trapped inside the company.
Much of the conventional wisdom suggests you should start serious planning no earlier than five years before you are ready to exit. This misperception is so common; we call it the Five Years’ Fallacy. This approach gets owners in more trouble than perhaps any other mistake.
