Exit strategy
The best exit strategy depends on your ambitions for yourself and the company. There are several options for selling your business. Marktlink has already successfully guided hundreds of SME entrepreneurs through this process. Together, we will design the pinnacle of your entrepreneurship!
Determine your own exit strategy
Your thoughts on the future of your business and the role you want to play in it largely determine what your exit strategy will look like. Retirement beckons, or new ventures. You want to stay on for a few more years, but also cash out some of your equity. Or you see opportunities that you can better realise together with a new partner.
When you are clear about your ambitions for the company and yourself, you will start thinking about the next step and what type of buyer fits that scenario. Most entrepreneurs already have an idea, but it is important to explore several options.
Types of business sale strategies
We identify three types of buyers:
- Individual buyers: someone from your current management team (management buy-out), a relative or an external candidate (management buy-in);
- Strategic buyers: competing or adjacent businesses in the industry, looking to increase market share or gain synergy benefits;
- Investment companies: external equity from an investor is used to achieve growth potential in the short term.
Marktlink has over 25 years of experience with each type of buyer in a broad range of sectors and industries. With our large, international network, we usually bring 6 to 10 interesting candidates to the table.
Complete the Marktlink Multiple and receive a reliable estimate in just one minute, based on over 40,000 calculations and 150 successful transactions per year.
The importance of an exit strategy
Every entrepreneur understands how important it is to have a well-developed plan, especially for more complex processes. You know your business better than anyone else, we know the pros and cons of each strategy and work with you to draw up a tailor-made strategy to strengthen your starting position. You only sell your company once, so you want to do it well!
Getting ready for sale as part of your exit strategy
Each exit strategy includes preparing your business for sale, or making it exit-ready. Solid preparation reinforces your position throughout the process and increases transaction certainty. By preparing thoroughly, you’ll be in a stronger position throughout the process and enhance the certainty of the deal. Would you like to see how your company stands at the moment? Find out whether your business is ready for sale.
The right time to sell
Determining the right timing is also part of the sale strategy. You don't want to be too early, but neither do you want to be too late.
Growth opportunities make a company attractive to buyers and increase value. But if all opportunities have already materialised and growth is levelling off, interest will wane. Marktlink's experts will help you determine the perfect moment.
A complete exit strategy is a well-thought-out roadmap that an entrepreneur uses to prepare their own exit. What is the starting situation, what do you want to achieve, what scenarios are possible, what successors or buyers are there, and what steps does the company still need to take?
An exit strategy consists of several steps:
Step 1: Decide what you want to achieve, for yourself as well as your business.
Step 2: Find out which types of buyers there are for your company and which type matches your goals best.
Step 3: Look at your company through the eyes of a buyer: which improvements make your business more attractive and increase its value? Which concrete steps can you take?
During each step, Marktlink’s experts offer relevant advice, from an entrepreneur’s point of view.
A lot is involved in drawing up a strategic plan, and it starts with establishing what exactly you want to achieve, what options there are, and what preparations you can make, up to the path you want to take and the role you still want to play.