O.K., I didn’t say it would be easy to assess. There’s a lot to think about. What I am saying is that it would be foolish to avoid the issue. The timing of exit may be 10 years down the road, or 15, or even 25, but at the very least, it should be considered as a part of a long-term strategic plan. Daniel Hudson Burnham said “Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood.” So plan. Plan to profit. Plan to nurture and build. And plan to exit.

The factors listed above must be assessed and ranked in order of importance before understanding the true value of the anticipated business venture. The maintenance and growth of asset value, as well as portability on transfer will ultimately determine the real return on investment.

Even though Barney was on the bleeding edge when he invented the dinosaur biscuit to reinforce good behavior, his target market ultimately went with the cats and dogs option. Of course, there wasn’t a big market for VoIP and Blogs in that digitally deprived age, when zeros and ones referred to the near death experiences of that particular day. Oh yeah, and it wasn’t that long ago, when McDonald was an old farmer.

The real message is that Barney should have had a plan to find a buyer before Rin Tin Tin and Sylvester showed up on his neighbor’s doorstep.