By now, most people will have given up on their New Years Resolutions.

The gym bags will be gathering dust (or even worse, mould) and people will be slipping back into their same old patterns.

One of the common resolutions that SME owners tell themselves they will sort out this year is 'to work out how I am going to exit/retire'.

Unfortunately, this resolution usually suffers from the myriad distractions of actually running the business. As a result, many SMEs are being run without serious consideration of an exit strategy.

Many of us in the corporate finance world are anticipating that 2014 could be the year of the Management Buy Out.

This is where the existing management team buys the business form the shareholders. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that most SME owners simply don’t take into consideration the fact that there is potentially a ready-made exit strategy in the management team.

Even if the current management team is not quite up to it yet, by training them up or bringing in new faces this may make the task of handing over the reins (not to mention realise gains on disposal) so much simpler. In addition, where business owners know the management team they often take more comfort from the fact that they are selling 'their baby' to someone who they know will take care of the brand and the staff.

If you are wondering how you are going to exit from your business, then please give me a call to discuss things. You may well need a three to five year plan, so you will need to map this out carefully. Why not make it your business New Years Resolution that you actually stick to? Not only will it give you benefit and peace of mind this year but also hopefully in future years too.