Darryl Bates-Brownsword says start exit planning years before you sell. Don't just chase profit and revenue. Focus on building valuation instead, and keep it quiet so you don't spook employees or buyers.
If you really want to maximize the value of your business and you've been working in your business or on your business or running the business and owning your business for years and you've been focusing on your growth, there's a couple of ways you can handle the question. If you go, look, I don't really want to potentially leak out to the marketplace that I'm getting exit ready, even though it might be a number of years off. The first thing I'd encourage you to do is start looking at your business instead of just looking at profit and revenue growth. Like a lot of people are saying, hey, look, you've got to grow your business, grow your business. They normally mean the the profitability and/or the revenue in your business. My encouragement to you is start, you know, make that mindset shift from profit growth to valuation growth.
