28A - Your Exit Strategy

1) Identify the exit strategy you plan to make. Do you intend to sell your business in the next 5 years for a large return? Do you intend to stay with the business for several decades and retire? Do you intend to protect the venture as a family business, and pass it down to your children?

• Assuming my business is successful, I would like to stay with the business and retire in it. Helping patients with mental illness is not a business that I would just pass down to anyone, even family. I believe one must be strong willed and have genuine interest and passion for the cause to ensure that it continues to operate as I would want it to.

2) Why have you selected this particular exit strategy?

• I’ve selected this exit strategy because as some may know, Florida has a terrible mental health system. By working with the company for several years, it would allow me enough time to successfully expand my services throughout Florida. I want to own a business that people can trust and is recognized everywhere within the mental health administration. While I would like to profit and be well-off in terms of my finances, my main goal, is to have a significant impact in the mental health community because I truly believe it can make a difference in everyday life for everyone. Before retirement, I hope to partner with other organizations and maybe sell the organization, but I’m still unsure about that. 

3) How do you think your exit strategy has influenced the other decisions you've made in your concept? For instance, has it influenced how you have identified an opportunity? Has it influenced your growth intentions or how you plan to acquire and use resources?

• My exit strategy has definitely influenced my growth intentions for the business. As I mentioned before, expanding throughout Florida will be a priority and a goal that will require lots of funding and campaigning. As a result, I will devote most of time creating budgets and securing grants for support. In addition, even though my specialty is within mental health, the relationships I build will gain me access to institutions such as homeless/domestic violence shelters which I could offer my services to free of charge, if able.

• Also, I’d eventually want to begin participating in charities and possibly create grants that can be donated to individuals or other institutions.