If you find yourself stuck owning a business you cannot leave, perhaps the problem can be traced to not paying attention in your college philosophy class.

 
One of the bedrock texts of any modern philosophy class is the play No Exit, by the existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre. In the play three characters have arrived in hell only to find themselves locked into a room together. Once the expectations of impending torture and hellfire fade away the three slowly begin to realize that their hell is, in fact, going to be spending eternity locked in this room, with each other, with no exit.

 Many business owners spend their time focused on starting and building their business, during those heady start-up up and growth days a partner or two can be the only friend in an otherwise hostile territory, someone on which you can rely to cover your back, to keep up the good fight. Years, sometimes decades later though all businesses hit a point when one of the owners wants to exit – and if no plan is in place to facilitate a smooth, fair and equitable escape – well, then Satre was speaking to you.

 Being stuck in a business you cannot exit is a terrible fate. Old relationships are strained, your future ambition seems stifled and perhaps most importantly, the health of the business itself will really suffer.

 So what to do?

 Well, at the risk of sounding like an insurance salesman – planning for the possibilities today will minimize the negative realities of tomorrow. Here are three ideas to get you thinking: 

1. If you wanted to exit tomorrow, could your business survive without you?
   Your vision, your customer relationships, your know-how, your investment capital: All of these are most likely crucial elements of your business success; they got you where you are today. However, if you pulled out of the business these dependencies become instant liabilities.
   
   Your ego may take a bit of a hit, but a successful exit means first and last that the business will survive after you have gone. If you aren’t able to pull back and back fill your own contributions to the business, you are guaranteeing a perilous ride for your business when you do go.  

2. If you wanted to exit five years from now, will your business be able to afford to buy you out or will you have to take other action?
   Being able to realize a lucrative equity event when you exit your business is the dream all business owners share – however if you don’t plan for this eventuality early, your choices will be very limited. Raising the cash to buy out an owner could easily put the business into a difficult debt position, bring in disruptive new investors or even force an otherwise unnecessary sale of the business.
   
   What ever the outcome, an unplanned exit will put a new stress on the partners left behind and the business itself.  

3. When your partner wants to exit today or 10 years from now – do you have a smooth transition process agreed to?
   Your interests in life are headed one way, your partner is headed another – They may have lost interest, or have a great new idea they want to do on their own. Without an exit plan, you both are trapped in that room together, neither one wanting to be tied to the other any longer, but unable to break free. Some of the most successful business relationships come to a slow sad death this way, creating unnecessary stress and anger where there was none before.
   
   Sitting down and agreeing to a process today, much like creating a last will and testament will go a long way in preventing the unnecessary painful brake-up.  

Although it may seem a lifetime away from where you, your partners and your business are today, planning the foundations of your exit today will do much to avoid an existential hell. It will provide a healthy transition for you so that your business will survive long after you have moved on.