Thompson on how to pass on your business

Royal Roads retired School of Business Professor Mike Thompson appeared on The Wealthy Life with Sybil Verch on CHEK TV, to advise business owners considering retirement on how to have a successful business exit.

Here is an excerpt of some of his advice:

“The most important thing to do first is to do a situation assessment, so figure out where you’re at... You need to do a bit of a size up on your business… So set the stage for that. Figure out your own personal financial situation as well. And then you go in to looking into the five pathways.

“The first one is to just pray… a lot of people have made no plans. Not the best pathway, but it is one… The second pathway is to try to achieve an internal sale… you can sell to family members or to employees…The third is to find an external sale… Number four is to keep growing and then sell. Sometimes it’s not the right time to put up the ‘for sale’ sign… The fifth one is essentially harvesting… build a plan for 18 months or so, then harvest the cash out of the company.”

You can watch Thompson’s tips on The Wealthy Life with Sybil Verch.