Nick HutchisonFounder and CEO, BookThinkers

Why do business owners shy away from exit planning and strategy?

12 Oct 2023 · 1 min

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1:01

In this conversation, Nick Hutchison asks why many business owners, like himself, focus on growing and enjoying their businesses but avoid discussing exit plans. The other speaker explains that a large segment of such owners run "Main Street" businesses—typically under $1 million in revenue—often built around lifestyle concepts such as a single restaurant or barbershop. Without franchising or scalable models, these businesses lack significant growth potential and are treated more as personal lifestyle ventures than assets that can be sold. In contrast, venture‑backed companies routinely consider exits from the outset, embedding that goal into pitch decks and growth strategies. The discussion highlights how revenue size, business model (franchise vs. single‑location), and funding source shape owners' attitudes toward exit planning.

Chapters

What percentage of business owners are like me? They're just kind of growing a business, they enjoy it, they're present with it, but they sort of shy away when you ask them, hey, what's the plan?
There are many people like yourself who say, you know, I'm just going to get this started, we're going to see where it goes. And then eventually they start to think, well, what could I do with it? So it's an interesting idea behind building a company that one day you could sell it to X or Y. It's more common, I think, Nick, in venture capital. That is way more common. So if I slice your question, a couple of meanings. One is dollar sign, how big it is in revenue. It's usually under a million would be a Main Street business, but also the type of business. If you create a restaurant concept or a really cool barbershop concept, unless you franchise it, the growth probably isn't there. And it maybe is more of a lifestyle business versus creating a business like it's an asset. So a lot of people who are funded by venture capitalists are thinking about the exit when they do the pitch deck to the investors.