While you are likely to be quite excited about starting up a new business, you may not be so keen on creating an exit strategy, a plan for eventually liquidating your business. Just because you are planning to exit does not mean that you are planning for the business to fail. For example, most people plan to retire or, at the very least, work fewer hours per week at age 70 than they did at age 30. An exit strategy can reflect this expectation.

Ways of exiting a business can include:

Selling your business. Selling all or part of a business is a good way to wash your hands of the whole thing and go on to something else. Selling the company intact allows you to charge a premium for the customer goodwill and reputation you have built up as an owner.

Giving the business to a family member. This is especially attractive if you want to avoid estate taxes and can be a great legacy for your heirs.

Selling to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). If your company has staff members who have been working for you for a long time, you might find it attractive to sell it to the employees. Not only are there tax advantages, but the company may gain value as the employees now get to serve as their own bosses.

Go public with your corporation. This is a relatively quick way to get liquidity from your company, and, depending on how the sale is structured, it may allow you to hold onto at least part of the company and continue to receive profits from it in the future. However, setting up a public sale can be tricky and may require outside expertise.

Selling the parts of the company. You could stop one day, sell the furniture and everything else, and just walk away. While this is a relatively simple way to achieve liquidity, it is likely to be personally unsatisfying. Additionally, in business, the whole is usually greater than the sum of its parts, and the business is likely worth more intact than in pieces.