Assignment 28A Your Exit Strategy

• Assignment 28A Your Exit Strategy

1) Identify the exit strategy you plan to make. Do you intend to sell your business in the next 5 years for a large return? Do you intend to stay with the business for several decades and retire? Do you intend to protect the venture as a family business, and pass it down to your children?

• Based on what I have learned about my particular industry to date, I think my plan would be to grow the business for the next several years, build up a reputation in the local market, and add some additional services for creating revenue.  Considering what we have learned about business and product/service life cycles, I think I would be ready to exit my venture after I get it to the maturity stage and move on to a new venture.

2) Why have you selected this particular exit strategy?

• When I prepared Venture Concept 1 and thought about what was next for me, I thought perhaps maybe one or more of my children might consider going into business with me and I would want to stay on as a partner.  I actually tested that theory and asked my daughter who is finishing her master's degree about it and she emphatically said NO, without hesitation.  Clearly, she would not be interested in this type of business.  I think my children have their own plans.  Also, after I listened to the lectures that discussed the life cycle of businesses, I reconsidered that plan and I think based on my age and where I am in life, I would rather sell the business and look at other opportunities in the future.

3) How do you think your exit strategy has influenced the other decisions you've made in your concept? For instance, has it influenced how you have identified an opportunity? Has it influenced your growth intentions or how you plan to acquire and use resources?

• Initially, I really did not have an exit strategy formulated. It was through working this opportunity by researching, interviewing and planning that made me originally think I would stay with this venture indefinitely, but as I learned more from the entrepreneurship lectures especially the life cycle of all things in business, I made adjustments to my exit strategy.  I also learned an incredible amount about discovery driven planning along with how to create reverse financial projections by using industry standards and assumptions which made me think about so many more costs of doing business.  
• The identification of the opportunity was developed exclusive of an exit strategy until I started thinking about what was next in my venture. 
• Based on what I have learned about the industry and the cost of equipment for a tattoo removal clinic, I will need to really focus on my social capital to help me find financial resources to acquire capital to fund my venture.  Also, I would not want to create a lot of liability or debt if my exit strategy is going to be in a few years.