Exit Before You Exit: A Different Way to Think About Your Business Future

The narrow road is where you are now. The highways are where you could go—once your business gives you the choice.

So what do you actually do?

I get this question often. Usually over coffee, sometimes at the end of a conversation where someone realises I'm not quite an M&A advisor, not quite a consultant, not quite an executive coach.

Here's what I ask them: Is your business successful—whatever success means to you?

They typically nod to different extents. Revenue stays strong, the team is prepared, and customer feedback is positive. Still, they want more from their business, and the pressure feels real. 

There is something of value here now, and they don't want to risk losing it. Somehow, they feel they lack options. They’ve built something worthwhile—but feel strangely confined by it. It dominates their lives. 

If they go to an M&A advisor, the process begins—packaging the business for exit. That's what advisors do.

If they go to a business mentor, they get a playbook. Follow these steps. That's what mentors offer.

If they go to an executive coach, the emphasis shifts to their leadership style. Valuable, but it's not the full picture.

So what's missing? A way to build a business that gives them choices now—before they're forced to make one.

Here's a simple approach I suggest:

Start with your life plan. What do you actually want your life to look like today, in a year, in five years? Is your business serving that plan? Now? In a year? At some point, the question becomes: is your business still serving your life—or has the relationship quietly flipped to your life serving the business?

The life plan then provides the purpose for considering the future growth of your business. Where is the business realistically headed, and what would it take to get there? Does that growth bring you closer to your desired life?

Next, sales is what you need to realise your growth. Can your current sales team and process actually achieve that growth? Do you have the pipeline, the market position, the capacity?

And finally, leadership and team. Are you a technical manager or a leader of people? Do you have a team that could run this business without you? Are you comfortable letting them run it?

Once these four things are in place, you have options. Real options.

That's what I call Exit Before You Exit.

What you do next is up to you: exit (sell), hand over, pass it to your children, or simply keep running it. But now you're choosing from a position of freedom, not obligation.

That's what I do.

I partner with business owners to navigate these areas and create a valuable business that offers them choices, so they aren't later forced into decisions by fatigue, markets, or circumstances.