Exit Strategy

Exit strategies are the strategies entrepreneurs or business owners have in mind for profiting from their entrepreneurship and risk-taking. An exit strategy enables entrepreneurs and their financiers to cash out. In some cases, the exit takes place on a day-to-day basis as business owners take high levels of salary, dividends and bonuses out of the business on an ongoing basis. Most exit strategies involve passing the business on to family members, selling to third-parties in corporate trade sales, to private equity companies via buyouts, to employees via management buy-ins or by going public in IPOs. For private equity buyers, exits typically involve so-called secondary buyouts where companies are sold to other private equity companies.