I came home one afternoon with my son to find the car already packed. His father was leaving. I stood there holding my son, trying to process what had just happened to my marriage, and underneath the shock, a second question surfaced: What was I going to do with my two restaurants?
In some ways, I was better prepared than most founders would have been. I have always been a systems person, so pieces were already in place, including basic financial separation and documentation of how things ran day to day. That groundwork is the reason the transition was survivable rather than catastrophic. But it also showed me, in real time, exactly where the gaps were. Having some systems in place is not the same as having an actual exit plan, and the difference between the two became clear fast.
That is the real lesson. Most business owners treat exit planning as a someday task, something to think about when a sale is on the table or retirement is close. By then it is often too late to do it well. An exit plan is not a prediction that something will go wrong. It is a foundation that lets a business move quickly no matter what happens, a sale, a health scare, a divorce or straightforward growth.
Steps to take
Here is how business owners can start building that plan before they need it.
Put ownership and decision rights in writing now. If a partner, spouse or co-founder has a stake in the business, formal or informal, get the structure documented while things are calm.
Separate personal and business finances and legal structures. Commingled accounts, personal assets tied to company names and informal handshake agreements all feel manageable until a disruption forces you to sort them out in real time.
Build a plan for the business to run without you for 90 days. Identify who could step in, what decisions they would be authorized to make and what information they would need.
Write down how a valuation or buyout would work before anyone needs one. Having an agreed upon process in advance removes emotion and guesswork from a moment that already has enough of both.
Revisit the plan on a schedule, not only when a crisis hits. A plan built once and never updated is only marginally better than no plan at all.
Lessons learned
I came out of that year more solid than many founders would have, but only because I already had some structure to build on. The founders in the worst position when disruption hits are rarely the ones going through a crisis. They are the ones who never built anything to fall back on in the first place.
That kind of preparation is one of the few parts of entrepreneurship entirely within a founder’s control, and it is worth building before you ever need it.
