Exit Planning

Why Does Your Family Business Need a Succession and Exit Strategy?

Timothy Foster

Many owners of a privately held business want to transfer their life’s work – the business – to a family member. There are many tax, legal and other considerations to consider.  You want to do what’s best for your family but also should not lose sight of your own goals and objectives.  And, there may be delicate family relationship issues to consider. In such a transaction, an intra-family business transfer these factors should be considered.   Benefits of a Family Business Succession Plan Minimize taxes to both generations and the business itself Maximize wealth building and retirement income Plan for…

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Decision Making, Exit Planning

How Much Money Do You Need to Retire?

Gregory Pearl

A very critical part of an Exit Plan is determining how much money you need to retire. Or another way to ask the question is how long the money you have now will last given your current spending and goals. Money may not buy happiness but it can buy freedom and security. And those two things contribute significantly to being happy. Money also reduces being sad, according to academic research. Perhaps because having it gives a sense of control over your life and who doesn’t want that? Money is a difficult subject for most people to talk about. It is…

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Exit Planning, Tax

Tax Planning is a Critical Component of an Exit Plan

Timothy Foster

Consider This Typical Scenario: Business owner commits decades building a profitable and successful business. As you know, those years have been filled with personal and family sacrifice, long hours, sleepless nights, and countless employee issues. That effort has produced a profitable and growing business, a loyal and well trained group of employees, and a consistent customer base. Without realizing it, one of the other and perhaps most costly sacrifices that Business Owner made was NOT utilizing advanced tax planning to use the business as a tool for properly building Personal Wealth and Retirement Planning. It really wasn’t Business Owners fault;…

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Buying & Selling a Company, Exit Planning

How to Get a Company Ready for Sale

Gregory Pearl

Your company is your most valuable asset. You have spent years creating, building, and nurturing it.  It is your life’s work.  And now may be the time when you are thinking about selling it. There are probably many reasons for this, but the time is right.  There is one thing for sure. Selling a company can be a long and complex process. Here is some of what you will need to do to get your company ready to sell.   Each business is unique and will require specialized actions particular to them. So what we are saying here is generally what…

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Exit Planning

Succession Planning is Not Exit Planning

Gregory Pearl

We talk a lot about exit planning for business owners on this site. Exit planning terminology can be a little confusing and have different meanings depending on who is being asked. Sometimes it goes beyond just the terminology to how the terms are related, meaning embedded in each other. Many business owners believe exit planning is the same thing as succession planning. But these are two different concepts, related but different. To make clear what each is and is not, here are some descriptions. Succession Planning identifies owner and management successors for a business. It also provides the identified successors…

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Business Valuation, Buying & Selling a Company

M&A Metrics Q1 2022

Gregory Pearl

Alteris LLC tracks Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) generalized valuation and other trends/metrics from its various partners and research sources.  We will periodically report on what we find here.  For more detailed information on valuations and M&A trends contact us directly. Please note that this information is a summary of many different types of companies of various sizes in a variety of industries. The specific valuation for any individual company, for your business, may and probably will vary greatly.  Each company and set of circumstances is unique and must be considered individually. This data is collected from various sources and includes…

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Buying & Selling a Company, Exit Planning

The Best Time to Sell Your Business?

Gregory Pearl

Everyone wants to sell their business for the best price possible.  Doing so is a gigantic achievement.  It also true that you cannot get the best sales price for your business without working closely with your advisors.  You and the people helping you must be a team.  And it is up to both of  you – the business owner and the advisors – to allow the sale for the highest amount to happen. The timing of the sale will also allow you to get the best possible price.  Here are some factors to consider when trying to sell your business.…

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