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When you build a business, you don’t spend a lot of time envisioning how you’ll eventually get out of it. Oh, maybe you think one day you’ll make enough money to retire, but while you can envision yourself sailing or gardening, what’s happened to your company? You need an “exit plan.”

An exit plan is a long-term strategy for transferring ownership of your company to others. The idea of thinking of an exit when you’re just starting out may seem incongruous. After all, you hardly know what you’re going to be doing next month; why try to figure out what you’re going to do with your company 10 or 20 years from now?

If you’re looking for an investor in your company, they’ll want to know your long-term goals and will ask you to spell out an exit strategy. They want to know how they’ll get their money back.

If you’re going to have a partner, then discussing your exit strategy reduces the friction that comes when you have unspoken but differing exit assumptions. You may hope to grow the business substantially and later sell, while they may want to maintain the business at a modest level and perhaps someday have a relative take over.

Even if you own the company yourself and hope to have it last through the ages, an exit plan helps direct the growth of your company. If, for instance, you would ideally like to be acquired by a larger company, you might target your product development and marketing efforts in ways that would interest acquiring companies.

There are a number of ways you can exit your company or have the value of the company become “liquid”:

Sell. This is often the simplest way to get value out. All types of companies can be sold, not just retail or manufacturing enterprises. Professional practices are “bought into” by new partners, or a one-person consulting business can be sold to someone who wants a built-in customer base.

Be acquired. Your company may be a good fit for a larger company that wants the part of the market, capabilities, or technologies you have developed.

Merge. This is similar to being acquired, but the assets of the merging companies form a new entity.

“Go public.” When you issue shares in your company that are traded in a stock market—an initial public offering (IPO)—it is referred to as “going public.” This doesn’t necessarily mean you depart from management of the company, but you now have a way to get money for your ownership interest by selling some of your personal shares.

Arrange for family members to take over. When Levi Strauss started selling blue jeans, he probably didn’t envision a family-owned company bearing his name 160 years later. Even if you know you’d like this to happen, you need a plan. Your family members might not want to run your company, or be capable of doing so.

RED TAPE ALERT!

A no-interest loan from a friend or family member may face what’s called “imputed interest” by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. If the 1RS views the loan as a gift, the lender will have to pay taxes on the money if it’s more than the maximum allowed by law. All lenders must charge an interest rate that reflects a fair market value.

Employee buyout. An excellent way to keep your company together and to retain the jobs you’ve created is to structure a way for either key management or employees as a whole to buy the company. An “ESOP”—Employee Stock Ownership Plan—can help them finance the purchase and give you the cash you need.

Go out of business. This is the easiest exit (assuming you have no debts or major employee commitments), but you also get the least financial reward. Sometimes though, you just want to close up shop and get on with the rest of your life.