No matter how old you are, it is important that you start thinking about your business long term. If you are unable to exit the rat race, you might as well start calling yourself an employee. Scaling yo your operations and getting the right people to take care of your business is a good way forward. No matter if you want to create a franchise or sell your business, you want to have the time to enjoy the fruits of your hard work.
Find and Train Talent
Image via Helloquence@helloquence
When you complain about your lack of time, and cannot focus on working on your business because you are working in your business, it is time to find people who would be happy to replace you and wear some of your spare managerial hats, It is always better to hire on attitude, especially if you want your employees to share the same vision and values as you.
Automate Your Growth
There are some tasks in your business that can be and should be automated. For example, if you are wasting time trying to manage your social media, you should try to outsource or automate this process. There are simply too many distractions online, and it is hard to limit yourself to just posting one company update. If you manage to automate your marketing, you will grow your business while putting measures in place to make it work on a larger scale.
Rethink Your Long Term Strategy
You might already have a five-year business plan, broken down to smaller, manageable segments and projects, if you don’t I recommend that you go ahead and create one. Every now and then, however, you should revisit this strategy and make adjustments. If your business is growing faster than expected, or you would like to take more time off, it might be the perfect time to accelerate your processes. If you ask yourself What is the Primary Object of a Leader? your answer is not likely to be to work 60 hours a week.
Add Value to Your Business
If you want to make your business profitable and valuable to you and your customers, you will need to increase its value every day. No matter if you are planning on selling your business or branching out, maybe et a long term finance deal, you have to focus on the value and the balance sheet of your company.
Create Systems That Run Themselves
To create an effective business exit strategy, you will need to create processes that are efficient and easy to understand for your staff. You might want to take a step back and become less involved in the day-to-day operations, and for this you need your staff to have clear guidance on how to get things done.
Creating an exit strategy for your business is just as important as having a five-year plan. You have to increase your revenue, your company value, and improve your talent pool, so you can enjoy your retirement, no matter when it happens.
