Exit strategies revealed

Vanessa Freytag and I just returned from a roundtable convened by the Center for Women's Business Research in New York City.

In addition to all the inspirational stuff that Vanessa will be posting about later, we were treated to an advance peek at a study on business exit strategies.

The final report isn't due out until September, but Elaine Sarsynski, the chief administrative officer for study sponsor MassMutual Financial Group, shared some initial findings.

Chief among them: While 85 percent of both male and female business owners rate price as the No. 1 factor in selling their business, women are more concerned than men about other factors.

Fully 86 percent of female owners take into account the prospective buyer's plans for current employees, vs. 61 percent of male owners.

Likewise, 72 percent of female owners take into account the buyer's identity, personality and background, vs. 30 percent of male owners.

"Women are more concerned than men about what happens to their business and their employees," Sarsynski told the 240 roundtable attendees. "Aren't we all better off when business owners aren't just interested in their bottom line?"

Like all studies from the Center for Women's Business Research, this is solid, well-grounded research. It was based on interviews with 800 business owners — half men and half women — who had at least $1 million in annual revenues and had been in business for at least five years. The margin of error is 3.5 percent.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on this survey, and the question of exit strategies may even creep into our profiles of family-owned businesses, coming in the June issue of Women's Business Cincinnati.

Cindi Andrews, editor, WBC