The Rolling Exit Strategy
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- —
About ten years into a business he had run for decades, Mark Tilbury realised he had no exit strategy at all — and that without one, he owned a job rather than a sellable asset. Rather than plan a single future exit event, he rebuilt the business so it is saleable at any moment and stays that way year on year. The core work is removing owner-dependence: ten years ago, taking him out would have stopped the business; today it runs well on the staff. He treats this as the first question to ask a new founder, before growth or marketing — where is the finish stage? The by-product is that a turnkey business is also a better business to own, because it no longer needs you daily.
Origin
Extracted from Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal
How to run it
- 1
Ask where the finish stage is, up front
Decide at the outset whether this is a lifestyle business you intend to run forever or an asset you intend to sell. Mark says he would tell a new burger-van founder to focus on the exit first.
Pro tip Being honest that it is a lifestyle business is a legitimate answer — but it should be a decision, not a default.
- 2
Audit your own indispensability
Honestly test what happens if you are removed for a month. Mark's answer a decade ago was that the business would not have operated despite having staff — that gap is the work list.
Watch out Owner-dependence is invisible while you are present; it only shows up when you try to leave.
- 3
Do every job yourself once, then hand it over
Mark says there is not one job in his businesses he hasn't done. That means when he asks someone to do it, he is not delegating out of distaste — and he knows the standard, the timing and what good looks like.
Pro tip Doing the job first is also what lets you write the process and judge whether it is being done well.
- 4
Build the team that runs the daily business
A good team is what converts a founder-shaped business into one that rolls on a daily basis without you. Mark points to Ali's team as the same mechanism in a content business.
- 5
Refresh the exit-readiness annually
This is a rolling strategy, not a one-off project. Year on year he re-adapts the business so that at any point he chooses to sell, it is already a turnkey operation.
Pro tip Diarise an annual review specifically of saleability, separate from the financial year-end.
- 6
Adapt the model when the market moves
Physical shops were the right structure when he started; the internet made bricks-and-mortar the wrong shape. Thirty-five years on he sells similar things in a completely different way — an entrepreneur sees answers rather than hurdles.
In the wild
About ten years ago Mark realised the business he had run since he was 20 had no exit strategy. He adapted it so that at any point he wants to sell, he can — a rolling strategy refreshed year on year. He is explicit about the change: take him out of it ten years ago and it would not have operated, even though he had staff; now it operates very well on the team he has built. Alongside that he moved the business from shop-led to design, import, manufacture and distribution as the internet reshaped retail.
→ A founder-dependent shop chain became a saleable, staff-run business without a forced sale event.
Ali describes being in Miami among founders talking about selling agencies to private equity at 20x profit, and realising he has no exit strategy. His conclusion is that making videos, interviewing people and writing books is a lifestyle choice rather than a business to flip. Mark agrees his own model business was similar — a lifestyle business where the enjoyment came daily. Ali notes that if it ever stops being fun, options like licensing the IP and building to sell remain open.
→ A conscious no-exit choice, with the door to a future exit deliberately left open.
Common mistakes
Building something with nothing sellable in it
Without an exit strategy you have no asset, just an income stream that stops when you do. Mark's framing is blunt: no exit strategy means you haven't got anything that's sellable.
Confusing having staff with being replaceable
Mark had employees for years and the business still would not have run without him. Headcount is not the test — the test is whether the daily operation survives your absence.
Delegating jobs you have never done
Handing off work you've avoided means you cannot document it, cannot judge the output, and are asking from a position of distaste rather than experience. Do it once, then pass it on.
From the transcript
“Because if you don't have an exit strategy, you haven't got anything that's sellable.”
“So, year on year on year and it's now a turnkey business as opposed to being um fully dependent on myself, which it it was.”
“you take take me out of it 10 years ago, it wouldn't have operated, but now it will operate very well with the staff that…”
From the episode
A Millionaires Masterclass In Business, Side-Hustles and Passive Income - Mark Tilbury
Mark Tilbury