Don’t Lose Your Shirt When You Go Out of Business!

Back in the ’80s I started my first business. I was doing “desktop publishing” in those days. I marketed my services by calling on businesses and printing companies who hired me to do design and layout work for their marketing pieces.

Thing is: I had NO background and NO concept of how to run such a business. I was having fun! I was making a little bit of money. But I wasn’t making nearly enough for the amount of time I was putting in. Soon I realized it was just not sustainable. It didn’t take me long to realize I needed to find a “real job” for a real paycheck.

But – I then realized I had no idea how to go OUT of business!

Fast forward 30+ years….

With several other ventures (employed and self-employed) behind me, I realized that my experiences and what I learned in the interim could help others – independent advocates (like you!) – who would start their practices just like I had begun my first venture in the 1980s.

So I started APHA (The Alliance of Professional Health Advocates), wrote business books for advocates, and developed online courses.

My goal was to keep new advocates from falling into the same business start-up potholes I had fallen into myself. Included was the realization that planning how to go OUT of business could have saved me a lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of headaches, and a LOT of money.

Which brings us to today’s post.

All new businesses need a viable exit strategy.

In fact, having a good exit strategy is so important, that it’s the second task listed in The Start and Grow Your Own Practice Handbook (page 56).

In the book, we look at the three possibilities for leaving your advocacy practice:

You can just walk away. Once you’ve completed all the work for your last client, or handed that client off to another advocate, you’re finishe. You can just step away.
You can sell your practice to another advocate. Interested parties will either want to go into an established practice – a head start – or want to expand a practice they already run successfully – growth.
… or …
You can give up, having run out of money, or going bankrupt, or owing thousands of dollars in credit card debt.

Which one will you choose?

For obvious reasons, no one will want to choose the third option. And yet – that’s the one that happens most frequently.

You don’t HAVE TO lose your shirt!

It’s been said that “failing to plan is the same as planning to fail.”

To prevent a huge loss of money, you need to begin by being well-capitalized. Then you need to manage your cashflow and balance sheets.

Are those words confusing? Do they sound overwhelming or daunting? Are you ready to just stop reading this post because you don’t want to see or hear them?

OK – then you are normal! I doubt many business people (except maybe people who learn to love financial statements for a living) want to worry about them….

But if you don’t learn how to use and implement them, I can almost guarantee you’ll be defaulting to #3 above. And if you do, consider all those future patients who NEED YOU who won’t have the opportunity to receive your help.

Forbes Magazine recently published this article on this same topic. Why Every Entrepreneur Needs an Exit Strategy. It’s a good one! See if you feel the same way – a shared experience and a good way to overcome it.

Then learn the basics of cash flow, monetization, capitalization, cashflow, and profits in The Start and Grow Your Own Practice Handbook. I promise it’s worth the few minutes of your time required to grasp those concepts, setting the stage to put it all into practice.