Bulletproof Your Exit: How to Prepare Your Business and Your Family for a Successful Business Exit

By Randy M Long

One day you will exit your business.

Whether you are ready for it or not. 

This is the book that shows you how to DEFEND against tragedy and WIN so you exit on top. 

Randy has spent his entire professional career helping business owners exit their business on their time, for the highest price, to the buyer of their ch

• Language: English
• Publisher: Long Business Advisors
• Release date: Nov 11, 2020
• ISBN: 9781947939851

Randy M Long

Randy M. Long, JD, CFP®, CExP™ is the CEO of Long Business Advisors, LLC, and President of Long Family Office. He has been helping owners build and sell their businesses for over 30 years. He is a business and estate planning lawyer, a wealth manager, and an exit planner. Randy also owns three businesses, so he knows firsthand what it takes to run a successful company. Above all, Randy believes that your business should help you build an enduring family legacy. He is building his own with his wife Lydia, their five children, and six grandchildren. Randy's firsthand knowledge of growing his family businesses and advising hundreds of other owners puts him in an ideal position to help you Bulletproof Your Exit.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Setting Up for Success

Four years after the death of Muhammad in 632 A.D., the second caliph, Omar bin al-Khattab, led the newly united Arab tribes against the Eastern Roman Empire in the world’s first Jihad. Thousands of Arabs flooded into Christian Syria, slaughtering and pillaging. Emperor Heraclius quickly raised a large multiethnic army of 30,000 Christian fighters and marched them to Syria. They met 24,000 Muslim forces commanded by Khalid bin al-Walid at the banks of the Yarmuk River in Syria.

Before the battle, Heraclius’s general, Vahan, and Khalid met to negotiate. The Romans offered to provide the Arabs with money and food on the condition they leave Syria. It was not hunger that brought us here, Khalid responded coolly, but we Arabs are in the habit of drinking blood, and we are told the blood of the Romans is the sweetest of its kind. Needless to say, negotiations broke down and the battle began soon after, lasting six days.

On the final day of battle, Khalid spearheaded a massive Arab cavalry offensive against the heavy infantry on the left flank of the Roman formation. Calamitously, a dust storm blew up during the maneuver. The Arabs, accustomed to fighting in such conditions, used the storm-caused havoc to encircle the Romans. Harried by the enemy cavalry and blinded by the sandstorm, the Roman infantry were quickly trapped.

Realizing they were isolated, the Christian infantry maintained formation and withdrew westward. A crescent of Arabs closed in; behind them, precipitous ravines stopped their retreat. The beleaguered infantry fought valiantly throughout the day, but their hope waned as darkness descended. Relying on night vision honed by years of desert warfare, the Arab cavalry charged at dusk. Ultimately pushed to the edge of the ravine, rank after rank of Roman soldiers fell to their deaths. The Byzantine army, which Heraclius had spent a year of immense exertion to collect, had entirely ceased to exist, writes British lieutenant-general and historian John Bagot Glubb. There was no withdrawal, no rearguard action, no nucleus of survivors. There was nothing left.

Following this decisive Muslim victory, the Arabs gobbled up 4000 miles of undefended Roman territory. Indeed, mere decades after Yarmuk, all ancient Christian lands between Greater Syria to the east and Morocco to the west had been conquered by Islam.

* * * * *

Heraclius had no backup plan, no troops in reserve, and no contingency force, leading to his army’s obliteration. The Muslims swallowed up a large portion of his empire because he had never stopped to consider what would happen if he lost Yarmuk.

While it may seem ridiculous that the leader of the entire Roman Empire would neglect to plan for disaster, it is just as common among business owners. I’ve seen many businesses wiped out by a failure to prepare for bad-case scenarios, and in doing so, lose their business legacy.

Creating a thriving business legacy is the primary objective of Bulletproof Your Exit, and is accomplished through the Bulletproof Exit Process. Successful legacies are founded upon the values and ideals of the business’s founder, and are internalized and implemented by the succeeding generation year after year, with structures in place to keep the legacy strong and protected.

Planning for a profitable legacy can be a complicated process, but with the right team of advisors in place, acting in the owner’s best interests, the solution is well within reach. The key is to take one step at a time. Our process simplifies the complex, giving the owner the power to take control of when, where, and how to transfer or sell their business through our 7-step process.

The Bulletproof Exit Process

Make The Decision – Who, what, why, when, and how much?

Assess The Resources – What do you have right now?

Assemble The Team – What professionals are you going to use?

Create Value Catalysts – How are you going to make your business worth exponentially more?

Increase Business Durability – How can you build a Bulletproof Business?

Live Your Legacy – How will your family benefit from your