An exit strategy for you business is a great idea.  All businesses should be started from day one with the idea that they will eventually be sold.  You want to get the most money for your business as possible so it would be prudent to have an excellent plan from day one.  If you are just starting out this may not seem very important.  I would like to stress that if you start keeping some basic bookkeeping records now at the beginning, you will have the ammunition to charge top dollar for your business.  If you show you are organized and attentive to details, your business is more desirable.  There are tons of people out there trying to sell junk.  If you keep an organized folder with some great stats you will have a leg up when its time to sell.  If you do not think you are going to sell your business it would be good to know that in 5 years time, you may have a different outlook.

The first thing you want to do is break the business down into the months of the year.  Not only do you want to make sure that each month is reconciled, but you will also want to have some additional information.  Secondly you should print a monthly overview of your income and expenses from your quick books.  Printing this keeps everything in one place for easy reference.  If you put each month into a folder and then all the folders into one binder, you will have a nice presentation to give to your future buyer.

Along with the overview statement you will want to document all Owner benefits.  This is any money that you pay yourself or use your business to pay for.  These monies will be scrutinized by a future buyer.  Always think long term when taking money out of your business.  There is nothing wrong with paying yourself, just remember that a buyer will want to know where every dollar has gone in the past in order to see the real “trend” that the business demonstrates.

If you are not using Google Analytics or some other tracking software, you should ad that to your arsenal.  This will not apply if you are selling only on Ebay.  Analytics reports can be printed off giving you a snapshot of that month’s information.  By studying the data from that month you can get an understanding of what the business is or was doing at that time.  Most importantly here would be to highlight the hard facts of:

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  >Total number of visitors

• Percentage of traffic source, i.e. search engine, direct, etc
• Average visit time
• Exit pages
• Hits per item
• Total revenue
• Conversion rate

Having these and studying them for yourself also gives you valuable information.  If you used just these facts you could set goals on each one of them for improvement in the next month.  The next month’s business plan should have that in it so that the future buyer can see that you are actually using the information.

A yearly summary would be the last page you would print off and it would of course summarize all the items you had monthly. 

Pay per click campaigns are another great printed item to add to your monthly report.  It will give the buyer an idea of what works and what does not in the business.  Chances are you have done a lot of keyword research to promote your products.  New sites generate traffic using these keywords until they build up some search engine credibility.  Naturally these items can be tracked and printed off from Google’s Adword’s page.

A good reference is to put in the previous years month highlights.  For example you would take April of 2007 and list it next to April of 2008.  This shows you how your business did in that particular month from the previous year.  This is very good to know for trend analysis.  Everyone wants to see growth.

Think of this as a mini business plan.  Having a list works well with most people.  If you pay attention to your linking campaigns this would be especially important.  Buyers like to see that owners were working “on” their businesses instead of “in” them.  Include the process maps of all the decisions that you make and why you made them.  There is no such thing as too much detail.  Again these should be printed and organized.

If you operate an ecommerce business, it is essential that you keep a manual that shows how the day to day system works.  You want to avoid having all of this in your head.  An operation manual shows buyers that you are organized and also shows them that they could step in at any time and run your business.  One of the best things to include is a binder on your products shipping details.  For our business every product gets a page in the binder.  If the product has to be packed we include all the basic information on how to pack and what box (the number from the vendor you ordered it from) it goes into.  If necessary a picture showing how it is accomplished is also helpful.  Keep in mind you are not necessarily using this manual to train someone but you very well could.  You want to show attention to detail.  As you add employees you will want something for them to reference, otherwise you will find yourself repeating instructions over and over.  Another great idea for the shipping manual is to use checklists.  If you manufacture or produce and item, there is a chance that it may have to have many parts or pieces.  A checklist that is laminated and labeled allows you to pack your boxes and check off that the items are included.  If you use a dry erase marker, you can use these checklists over and over again.  Again the whole idea is to be categorized and organized.  Anyone will feel more prone to buy something if you kill them with information.  This will also help you with a smooth handoff and keep your time in consulting to a minimum.

Whether it was a good idea or a bad one, jot it down and note its results.  I have had plenty of bad ideas or products that I would not want to try again.  But new and old ideas always trigger something down the road.  Keep a log it shows a future buyer what you have thought about.

If you plan on selling exclusively on Ebay, using analytics is not much use to you.  However you can still be “stat-worthy” by using Vendio’s Monthly report.  Simple print out the monthly report and use it for reference.  This report will show what items you sold and for what prices.

You can find more good topics on the best small business opportunities and unique home based businesses at Do it Yourself Manufacturing.  Not only can you explore articles about creating your own products, you can also do a better job with your ecommerce business overall.