AIMS Accountants for Business
AIMS Accountants for Business
It seems at first a bit silly to be thinking about how you’re going to leave your business before you even started. It’s like asking what time you’re flying home when you’ve just landed on holiday. Yet, it’s not all that foolish when you think about it.
Proper preparation and planning will make sure that your business grows in the way that you want, so that you get the exit that you want. Here are 3 reasons you want to think about your exit strategy before you’ve opened your accountancy practice.
An exit strategy is a plan to get rid of your stake in a business. It is your way of selling ownership of your business as you enter retirement, begin a new venture or change careers.
The main goal with an exit plan is usually to make a profit, but it can also be to ensure a happy and stress-free retirement.
Anyone who has been self-employed and then retired will tell you how important it is to plan. Before you start an accountancy practice, think about what you want for your retirement. If you want to travel and be really active, you’ll need more money than if you just want to relax at home. As such, you might
need your practice to be bigger when you reach retirement. This means that you should include in your exit strategy, a plan to grow to the necessary size that will enable a big enough pay-out to sustain an adventurous lifestyle.
When you come to the point of exiting, if you sell your book of clients, it’ll need to be big enough to give you the appropriate pay-out. If it isn’t, you could consider retaining some shares in the business but transferring control and majority ownership to another interested party. This means that you’ll have another stream of residual income when you start to move away from working full time in your business.
This cannot be underestimated. Your mental health is extremely important and understanding what you want from an exit will make sure that you are happy and stress-free.
It’s an extremely emotional time, saying goodbye to a business that you spent years building. You forged relationships with clients and suppliers, some of them probably become close friends when you work with SMEs. You put your heart and soul and money into making sure your business was successful. Leaving all of this behind is inevitable but can be upsetting.
Ensuring that you have an exit strategy in mind will help ease the transition out of your business mentally.
Fortunately, if you open a practice with AIMS, you’ll have around 200 potential buyers when you sell. All AIMS Accountants are at different stages in their lives and businesses and many will be eager to buy your book of clients when you’re ready to sell.
We will help you dot the is and cross the ts.
Don’t worry, when you decide to open a practice with AIMS, we will help you formulate a business exit plan at the beginning so that you know where you stand. To find out more about becoming an accountant with us, visit https://www.aims.co.uk/accountancy-franchise/.