Succession & Exit Planning

Succession and exit planning for your best interests.

Forget the golden parachute — succession planning is all about ensuring strong foundations in your business to create a golden legacy and grow your personal wealth.

An appropriate exit strategy or succession plan maps out and considers every aspect of your business in order to achieve your desired exit outcome. This includes developing a succession plan, assessing different types of business exit strategies, and ensuring alignment with long-term succession planning objectives.

Succession planning involves making decisions about who will lead your business into the future, and who will take ownership of it. By taking charge of this decision-making process, you will be able to attract a higher sell price for your business and minimise the tax you pay on the proceeds.

The benefits of a well-considered exit plan.

Business succession planning is about controlling variables now to create the ideal situation when you eventually leave the business. Getting your ‘ducks in a row’ means never having to regret doing the deal out of desperation, providing the leverage to dictate your terms when the final paperwork is drafted.

Effective business succession requires clear strategies for succession planning and a structured succession planning framework to ensure a smooth transition.

Having a plan in place can also help:

  • Minimise your Capital Gains Tax obligations
  • Reduce stress at time of exit
  • Secure your income to retire or invest
  • Improve fiscal stability in the business
  • Smooth the transition for your team
  • Protect the legacy of what you’ve built
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Why Choose Succession Plus for your Succession & Exit Planning?

Our approach is based on a proven methodology used across corporate exit planning engagements, privately owned businesses, family business succession planning, and family governance advisory.

We work across a wide range of ownership structures and transition scenarios, including founder-led businesses, family-owned enterprises, and privately held companies preparing for sale or internal succession. Each requires a different balance of strategy, governance, valuation, and stakeholder alignment.

Our expertise includes supporting family succession planning where ownership and leadership are passed across generations, often alongside complex emotional, financial, and governance considerations. We also advise on broader business exit and succession scenarios, helping owners prepare for internal transfers, management buyouts, or external sale.

Across all engagements, our focus is on aligning business continuity with value creation, governance structures, and long-term ownership outcomes — ensuring both commercial performance and legacy objectives are achieved.

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A PROVEN FRAMEWORK FOR BUILDING BUSINESS VALUE

Value Acceleration

Business succession and exit planning using Value Acceleration is specifically designed to allow you as the owner to work on the business and focus on accelerating the equity value of your business.

Using the Five Stages of Value (designed by Dr Craig West and taught by the Exit Planning Institute to advisers worldwide) to identify, protect, accelerate, extract and manage the privately held wealth in most SMEs provides our clients with the safety and security of building a sale/exit ready business, that is transferable at any time and aligns with the owners personal, family and financial goals.

Over the years, we have worked with over 1,000 clients who have been able to use our Value Acceleration programs to build significant companies. Our advisers are experienced and have qualifications in accounting, finance, wealth, legal and management and have worked with multiple businesses to deliver tangible value.

If you’re starting to think about what stepping away from your business might look like, whether now or a few years from now, our Exit Like a Boss eBook might be a helpful place to begin. It walks through the early questions to consider and shares lessons from business owners who’ve been through the process.
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Business exit strategies to maximise value.

You only get to leave your business once, so it literally pays to get it right. There are many ways to exit, but we fundamentally believe the timing and reason should be your choice.

In this uncharted territory for most owners, it can be useful to have guidance to get to your ideal destination. A Succession Plus adviser can help you explore:

  • Succession to family
  • Employee Share Scheme (ESS)
  • Open market sale
  • A merger or acquisition
  • Co-founder or management buy-out
  • Selling to competitors or suppliers
Comprehensive guide to succession planning
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BENEFITS

Benefits of our Exit Planning Advisory Service

Strategic

Our proprietary Five-Stage Strategic Plan looks at your business, how you run it, and the marketplace in which it operates. Considering these factors allows us to maximise value and achieve a successful exit.

Comprehensive

We take a structured approach to succession planning and business succession that considers financial, operational, and strategic factors to prepare your business for transition.

Effective

Our approach ensures your business is positioned for a smooth transition through a clear succession planning framework aligned with your goals.

Most owners aren’t ready to exit.

A best-case scenario would be giving yourself at least five years to maximise the potential value extracted when you exit. But when it comes to exit planning, it’s never too early or too late to start.

Book a free consultation with a Succession Plus adviser to understand your options and next steps, or send us a message if you’d prefer to get in touch.

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Testimonials

As both a franchisor (who regularly refers franchisees) and a private client of Succession Plus, I can genuinely recommend their services. We recently involved Succession Plus in a process to help us with restructuring our ownership and management succession. The result has taken a lot of pressure on the business through de-risking and growth strategies. 

Michael Davoren

| RE/MAX Australia

If you want to build a business you can sell for maximum value, Craig West is the best in the field. Whether it's through his books, courses or advisory programs, if you can get in front of him, do it. 

Jack Delosa

| The Entourage

We have been working with Succession Plus for the past 3 years from a business strategy and mentoring platform, whilst their team have also been establishing our Peak Performance Trust – team member plan. Their service and dedication to detail in guiding us through new territory has been first class and provided a positive plan for the businesses success.

Scott Palmer

| i2C Design & Management

Frequently Asked Questions on Succession Planning

What is Business Succession Planning?

It is the structured process of creating a succession plan and preparing a business for leadership transition or ownership change.

What is Exit Planning?

Exit planning involves defining a clear exit strategy and evaluating different business exit options available to the owner. 

What is succession planning consulting?

It is professional support to create a succession plan, evaluate business exit strategies, and prepare for ownership transition. 

What are the benefits of succession planning?

Without proper succession planning, the ability to extract value from the business, fund the owner’s retirement and successfully continue the business (benefiting employees, suppliers, customers, and other stakeholders) is unlikely to be realised. A properly designed business succession plan will achieve all of these things whilst maximising business value.

Do all business owners need a succession plan?

Yes, all owners will exit their business at some point in time and those that have a business succession plan will always achieve a far better result. Using a succession plan to maximise business value and design a strategic plan to exit will ensure the business, the owners and all stakeholders are ready at the right time.

What is leadership or management succession planning

Leadership succession (or management succession) is about ensuring you have people within your business ready to step up and take on more responsibility and reduce reliance on the owner. Leadership succession is a process of identifying, training and preparing employees over a period of time.

What are the stages of succession planning?

A succession plan is far more than a document. It should be a comprehensive implementation plan with detailed steps to cover off all aspects of preparation for the business, the owners, the employees, and other stakeholders. Succession is a journey and will typically take 12 to 18 months at least, to fully implement ensuring owners, employees and stakeholders are prepared.

What are the types of business exit strategies?

Common types of business exit strategies include family succession planning, management buyouts, mergers and acquisitions, and open market sales.

There are also other ways to exit your business without simply closing the doors, such as listing the business, management buy-ins or ESOP structures, private equity transactions, or the sale of your client base or customer list.

The key is to identify the most appropriate exit planning option based on your individual circumstances, and your business, financial, and personal goals.

When is the best time to start developing your business exit strategy?

The best time to start developing an exit strategy is as soon as you start the business. “Begin with the End in Mind” is about starting to design your exit and ensuring all your decisions are focused on getting you closer to a successful exit.

How long does it take to develop an exit plan?

An exit plan should be developed over time. It is a strategic plan and, in most businesses, will take 12 to 18 months to design and implement. It should always include expert advisers who specialise in Business Succession and Exit Planning and can help in designing the most appropriate plan to maximise business value and achieve a successful exit.

How do I exit my business?

Exiting your business typically involves a structured process of planning, valuation, and choosing the right exit option. This may include succession to family, sale to a third party, employee ownership, or a management buyout. A well-developed succession plan helps business owners understand their options, maximise business value, and transition out of the business in a controlled and strategic way.