Planning the Exit: Coaching Entrepreneurs Toward a Successful Business Sale-Heidi Steiger
It’s not unusual for entrepreneurs to hit a moment in their journey where they feel stuck — not because things aren’t working, but because they’re unsure how to prepare for what’s next. They’ve built something successful, profitable, and deeply personal. But now the question becomes: how do I position this company for a sale?
That’s where this conversation begins.
Why I’m Talking About This
As an executive coach and board director, I work with many founders who are approaching a major inflection point: they’re thinking about retiring in the next 5–10 years and want to ensure their business is ready for transition.
This is such a powerful moment in a founder’s life — not just professionally but personally. After years of building, it can feel daunting to shift gears. I coach my clients through this phase not by starting from the past, but by asking them to envision the future.
What does your company need to look like at the moment you want to sell? That single question changes everything.
What follows is a breakdown of the process I guide entrepreneurs through — from vision to team to strategy to sale.
“I do a lot of coaching with entrepreneurs, typically at a point when they’re stuck. They’ve achieved a certain level of success and profitability, but now they want to know what to do next. Usually, they’re thinking about retiring in five to ten years. So the question becomes: how do I get my company to the point where it’s ready to be sold? What do I need to do to get from A to Z?
The first thing I do is coach the executive and say: forget how you got here. What do you see your company looking like at the point when you want to sell it? That allows us to stick to the mission statement and keeps the vision future-focused.
Step two is looking at the people. Who’s working for you? What are their skills and weaknesses — not just in general, but relative to where you want the company to go? That often involves coaching and training existing team members. Sometimes it also means hiring new talent to fill the gaps and align with the long-term strategy.
Step three is the strategy itself. How do we connect the strategy to the mission statement? What are the steps we need to take? What’s the operating plan that will get us where we want to be in five to ten years? We put metrics around this so we can measure success along the way.
Then five years from now, I come back in and take a fresh look at the business. Are there things we still need to work on before it’s ready to be sold? What’s the marketing plan? What kinds of companies do we want to attract as buyers? How do we market to them?
And finally, once the business is sold, how do we ensure a smooth transition for the employees?”
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