Exit planning and succession
Owen P.
Owen writes the exit-planning guides for owners thinking about selling, handing a business to family, or stepping back from a partnership. He tries to keep them plain and practical: the order things need to happen in, and the points where it is time to bring in a CPA, attorney or valuation professional.
Articles by Owen P.
- Exit Planning
How to Sell a Small Business: The Process, the Paperwork and the Tax Rules
The sequence from clean books to closing, the SBA financing rules a buyer faces, and how the IRS taxes the sale of a business.
- Exit Planning
How to Value a Small Business: The Three Approaches, and What Buyers Actually Pay
The asset, market and income approaches, what published multiples really measure, and when an SBA lender requires a formal valuation.
- Exit Planning
Exit Planning for Family Owned Businesses: Gifting, Selling and the 2026 Rules
Passing a business to family in 2026: the $15,000,000 exclusion that did not sunset, how a gifted business is valued, and when a sale beats a gift.
- Exit Planning
Exit Planning Financial Considerations: Price, Tax and What You Keep
What sets the sale price, what a buyer adjusts in your numbers, how the proceeds are taxed, and what is left after debt and fees.
- Exit Planning
Exit Planning for Retirement: Timing, Tax and the Rules That Changed
Holding a business longer does not lower your capital gains rate. What actually decides the tax, the timing and what reaches your family.
- Exit Planning
Creating a Successful Exit Strategy: The Six Decisions, in the Order They Have to Be Made
An exit strategy is six decisions: the date, the number, the books, owner dependence, the route and the team. What each one takes, and in what order.
- Exit Planning
Exit Planning Checklist: What to Do Three Years Out, and in What Order
A sequenced exit planning checklist from three years out to closing, with the reason for each step and the published rule or IRS form behind it.
- Exit Planning
Exit Planning Examples: What the Deal Data Says a Sale Looks Like
Worked examples from published deal data: the median small-business sale, an SBA 7(a) structure, the Form 8594 allocation and installment rules.
- Exit Planning
Exit Planning Legal Considerations: The Documents and Who Prepares Them
What each document in a business sale does, who drafts it, and the 2024 Supreme Court ruling that changed redemption-funded buy-sell agreements.
