You are creating a business plan for your online business – good for you! But don’t forget to make sure to include your exit strategy. This is actually as important to your business plan as the plan for your regular reviews of your business strategy. How you exit from your business is as important as how you start your business, and knowing how you or when you plan to exit is as important as knowing how or when you plan to start your business.

Your goal is to maximize what your business is worth prior to converting it to cash and to reduce the amount of time needed to accomplish this goal. This is going to look very different for each business and every individual. There is no one right answer to achieve this type of success with your business.

You need to be able to define your business before you can define your exit strategy. What is your long term goal? Are you hoping to get your site up and running and then sell it to someone, maybe even an investor? Do you have a 3-year, 5-year, 10-year project plan that you want to complete before you move on to the next venture? On the other hand, do you want to continue to run this venture as a profitable venue for years to come?

How you answer the questions here will definitely help you to define what your exit strategy will look like. It’s important to give your exit strategy the time it deserves so that you can create a clear and concise exit strategy with goals and steps along the way to make reaching your exit strategy more likely to occur. Of course, don’t be afraid along the way to make changes to your business plan and tweak it as necessary.

When you take the time to define these objectives early on and you incorporate them in your business plan, and you also are spending time considering your long term goals, it will help to get your company up and running and then to help you to keep your goals in focus, so that you are always paying attention to meeting these goals. In turn, this will make it much easier to create a viable exit strategy that can work for you.

So, remember when you are creating your business plan and working hard on your startup strategy, keep your exit strategy in play too!