REVIEW: Chris Vanderzyden — Master Your Exit Plan (BOOK)

Colin Jordan
3 min readJun 7, 2022

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“As an entrepreneur, I have launched, grown and sold multiple businesses. I know your pain. And as a CPA and a founding principal of Legacy Partners, an exit planning advisory firm specializing in mergers and acquisitions, I have spent years engaging with business owners, creating and guiding the execution of their exit strategies.

LEGACY PARTNERS LLP: https://legacypartnersllp.com/

I understand the confusion you feel and the need for clarity and guidance as you begin planning and executing the sale of your business,” Chris Vanderzyden writes at the beginning of her new book, Master Your Exit Plan: Sell Your Business, Preserve Your Legacy. “The only way to exit your business from a position of control and clarity, resulting in a successful sale and a satisfying post-ownership life, is to have a Master Exit Plan (MEP) in place.

A Master Exit Plan is a comprehensive step-by-step guide that will provide a business owner the information needed to take decisive action in preparation for the eventual sale of their business. It recognizes the inter-relationship of the owner’s business, personal and financial planning. When executed successfully, your MEP will enable you to not only exit via a sale to a third party but also to transition into the post-ownership phase of your life with ease, confident your wealth will be protected for future generations.”

In effectively one to two paragraphs, Ms. Vanderzyden is able to break down a series of heady concepts in decidedly anti-verbose, concise and clear language choice. From this introduction, she is then able to delve further into the microcosmic specificities proving integral to initiating the titular Master Exit Plan strategy properly.

A lot of it at its base essentials is offshoots from the bastion of common sense, a complexly layered yet fundamentally simple set of tenets, perspectives, and methods that utilize a sense of vision and situational clarity as much as they require a fully internalized workplace education and precise calculation per one’s enduring actions as a leader. Vanderzyden adopts a maternal, yet never high-handed tonality, making herself personable to the reader but never at the expense of her professional integrity or the material presented. “Most owners of privately held businesses will want to exit by way of a sale to a third party, which is why this book is focused on that particular strategy.

AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1945847573/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_YRHCRC0E2ERV9D9X2H5Y

We will explore all exit strategies…I’ve also included contributions from experts who present critical legal information to consider when selling, strategies to reduce the risk in your business that will in turn increase its value, and advice on how to protect the wealth created from the sale of your business. This book is your map to ensure you succeed in creating and executing a Master Exit Plan that will transition you from equity to liquidity, preserve your wealth, and provide a legacy for generations to come,” she writes at the end of the book’s opening. She includes her signature too by these definitive sets of statements. This only hammers home that it’s the communicator that counts — as much as the communication itself.

Colin Jordan

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Colin Jordan

Graduate: McNeese State University, Avid Beekeeper, Deep Sea Diver & Fisherman, Horrible Golfer