You’ve built your business like a master craftsman—now it’s time to plan your handoff. Doescher Group CFO, Kevin Rogner shares how business owners, specifially those in construction and trades, can create a step-by-step exit strategy that protects value, rewards key people, and ensures a smooth transition into the next chapter.

If you’re a healthcare professional who owns your own practice, you’ve probably realized that serving patients is only part of the job — the other part is navigating insurance, compliance, and running a business you were never formally trained to manage. Over time, the weight of being both practitioner and owner can wear you down. Yet healthcare remains one of the strongest, most resilient sectors in our economy — which means your practice could hold more transferable value than you think. In this article, we unpack how to prepare for succession, elevate practice value, and exit on your own terms.

Traveling just behind the leader offers a unique perspective. From systems to team growth, Sandy shares the hidden trail markers she’s seen that help business owners build companies that run without them.

Imagine you wake up and realize you’ve outgrown your house. It was great, but now it’s too small, or too big, or requires too much maintenance. You’re ready for broader vistas and new adventures. It’s time! Today is the day! 

Do you call the first realtor whose number you see on a park bench, sign a contract immediately, and hope for the best? 

Of course not! You do your research.

You’re not sure you want to sell your business any time soon.
You’d love to hold onto it, but it’s giving you headaches.

It keeps you up at night like the little drips that fall from your leaky bathroom faucet. 

I’m going to encourage you to go ahead and make whatever fixes you can, right now. This ultimately will make your business more sellable down the road, AND it makes it more enjoyable to run today. Read on to find out how!

Overall, if your business is growing and sales are coming in, you have a feeling that your sales team is performing well. If you’re getting new inquiries, you probably have a sense that your marketing efforts are working. Without a CRM in place, the owner will be mostly leading their salesperson off of how things feel, rather than based on reality. With a CRM, key metrics will be defined that allow leaders to point their teams in the right direction of the actions that lead to new business.

How prepared are you for the future state of your business? How ready is your business to transfer to a new owner? Regardless of the option that best suits you and your business, you’ll likely need to spend a lot of time seeking out information and guidance on the process. When the initial study was done in 2013, less than 40% of all owners surveyed said that they had an understanding of their exit options. In 2023, that number rose to 70%.

You know the days where you’re constantly spinning your wheels? By the end of the day nothing is solved, but you’re exhausted. Your “issues” pile keeps growing as problems are coming in faster than you can find solutions. The brute force method worked when you started your business. But two things have happened. Your business has grown and you’ve gotten older. You cannot keep up the pace anymore. And you’ve earned the right to slow down and enjoy what you’ve built.

The answer is simple, and even a little boring – Systems.

Exiting your business is a process. It’s not an event. It might come as a surprise to you, but exiting well can take a lot longer than you might think. Why? Private company investors today are investing in great teams more than anything.

In this post we’ll help you understand some of your options to allow you to exit well, on your terms.

You’re human and that means this will not go on forever.

As an entrepreneur, you successfully ignored this thought for decades. You’ve spent your career engrossed in the present. You’ve spent your time solving today’s problems. Even now, you cannot take a 30-minute meeting without receiving at least a few calls from needy customers and befuddled employees.

Reality cannot be denied any longer. There’s a thrill that comes from being so indispensable and in the flow of the day-to-day, but it’s time to start thinking about your next act before it’s too late.

You are a business owner. But when you arrive at the office in the morning, I’m guessing you arrive as an employee. You might be the highest ranking employee, but you’re an employee nonetheless. You have job duties and responsibilities that need to get done in order for the business to function properly. You draw a salary like everyone else. And the fact that you happen to own the company’s stock does not factor into the reality of your daily work life.

Excessive owner dependence plagues many companies and buyers are on the lookout for it. If you’re looking to sell and retire, and you’re still sitting at the intersection of everything, you’ll likely be unable to fool savvy buyers.

While resolving your owner dependence issue can be a challenging problem to solve, it may be the largest key to unlocking meaningful value in the sale of your business.

“The kids will take it over and they’ll deal with it.” After all, who would turn down the opportunity of a lifetime, to step into the enterprise that provided the charmed life you and your children have enjoyed? Why would they choose any other path, right?

While the answers to these questions may seem self-evident to you, your assumptions are worth exploring.

Rather than wander into this jarring culture shock unprepared, it is important to consider how you’d like your post-sale situation to be handled. In many cases your role will be fleshed out between you and the buyer. So let’s think about this from two specific (and potentially conflicting) points of view.