101 Questions on Exit and Succession

While not all these questions will be relevant to all businesses, understanding and answering these questions will enable you to add serious value to your business.
This is not a definitive list but by the time you have answered all these questions your exit plans are likely to be pretty well sorted.
Remember your answers are for you and your business.
The right answer for your business is not necessarily right for another.

These are the questions we help our clients answer.
If you get stuck or anything concerns you please get in touch – it is what we are here for.

1. How do I turn my business into a cash cow
2. What are the limits of my limited liability
3. How can that affect the sales value
4. Should I change the legal entity of the business
5. How should my business be valued
6. Should I get an independent valuation
7. How do I know the valuation will be fair
8. When should I get a valuation
9. What are the pitfalls involved with family successions
10. When should I involve the other owners
11. How do I measure the goodwill in my business
12. What is the goodwill really worth
13. How do I increase the value of the goodwill
14. How exactly do my business plans increase the value of my business
15. Is it possible for my business plans decrease the value of my business
16. What can I do if my businesses performance is going down
17. What information can I legitimately withhold
18. How should I present our customer complaints records
19. Should we use a business broker
20. Why shouldn’t we just put it on Trade Me/e-bay (online auctions)
21. How do we know who would get us the best deal
22. How do I determine the dollar value of my database
23. Has our hiring system got any real value
24. How do we value our operational systems and procedures
25. How should we measure and value client retention
26. When is the best time to sell the business
27. Should I sell to a competitor
28. Who should I sell my business to
29. How do I know what the “best price” for my business is
30. Will I get more or less if I sell to someone in the industry
31. Should I sell the business over a period
32. How do I determine the best price for my business
33. Do I need to value everything in my business
34. How can I gain a residual income after the sale
35. Are there other options apart from a sale
36. What will lower the value of my business
37. How should we choose a business broker
38. Should I franchise my business
39. How do “I” stop being “the business”
40. Am I selling a business, a job or a brand and what differenced does it make
41. How do I identify and value my businesses intellectual property
42. How do I protect my IP during negotiations
43. Should I offer the business to my staff
44. Will I have to stay on after the business is sold
45. How long would be reasonable to stay on for
46. How much should I be paid to stay on
47. Should I accept staged payments
48. How do I protect my interests until I receive full payment
49. What should I say to my staff
50. When should I tell my staff
51. When should I tell my customers
52. What is plan “B”
53. What business records should I not disclose
54. What should I tell them about the competition
55. What shouldn’t I tell them about the competition
56. What exactly is due diligence
57. How long does the process take
58. What is my business really worth
59. How do I increase the value of my business
60. Why should I do business with Seriously Sorted
61. What can you do that my trusted accountants and lawyers can’t
62. What happens if it all turns to custard after the sale
63. What can go wrong and how damaging would it be
64. There is too much to do - what will generate the best cost benefit in time & money terms
65. Why should I consider any of this now – I’m not planning on exiting for 5,10, 20 years, ever
66. How hard should I negotiate
67. Just what is the “process”
68. What can I do if the other owners don’t want to sell when I do
69. How can Seriously Sorted add value to MY business
70. How long will it take to prepare my business for my exit
71. How do I protect my staff from being made redundant
72. I only want my some of my staff to have the business – how should I deal with that
73. What are the tricks to increasing EBIT
74. How can my staff fund a buy out
75. How do I protect my residual income
76. What exactly is a cash cow business
77. How can a buyer put legitimate pressure on the price
78. How can I increase the value of the assets
79. How do buyers devalue EBIT
80. What is EBIT/EBITDA
81. How can I value our database
82. How does the EBIT value affect the sale
83. Can I force the other shareholders to sell
84. Who decides what the EBIT multiplier or factor is
85. How do they determine the multiplier
86. Can I be forced to buy out another shareholder
87. What if I can’t afford to pay
88. What can I do if the valuation is lower than I need
89. What are the options within selling
90. How do we put a value on our systems and procedures
91. What can we do if the buyer doesn’t agree our valuation
92. What are the options for succession
93. My business is losing money how can I minimise the effects on the sale value
94. I am a sole operator how can I sell my business
95. How do we control the sale process
96. How do we control the succession process
97. What questions should I ask a prospective buyer
98. Should we let a potential buyer talk to our staff
99. What if the buyer can’t raise the money at the last minute
100. How should we incorporate plan B
101. How can I make money through the Seriously Sorted strategic alliance network


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