Exit Planning for the People Behind the Business

Betsy Grzybinski, CEPA® – Executive Coach and Certified Exit Planning Advisor, Founder of One Percent Today | St. Louis, Missouri

Most exit and succession conversations focus on the numbers: valuation, tax strategy, and deal structure. Those things matter. For most organizations, the hardest part of an exit or transition is not the transaction. It is the human side of the transition: who is leading, how ready they are, and who each person is becoming on the other side.


That is the work Betsy does.

Betsy approaches exit and succession planning through an executive coaching lens. She works with business owners, named successors, and private equity or investment firms that are evaluating and developing leadership capacity inside portfolio companies. Her role is to help the right people get clear on what they truly want from the next chapter, align personal goals with business strategy, and lead through one of the most significant transitions of their careers with intention rather than reaction.

What Is a Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA®)?

A Certified Exit Planning Advisor is a professional credentialed through the Exit Planning Institute, a leading organization in the business transition space. The CEPA® program is built around the Value Acceleration Methodology, a framework that brings together business strategy, owner goals, and exit-readiness into one process.

The Part of Exit Planning Most Advisors Skip

A high percentage of ownership and leadership transitions simply do not deliver on stakeholders’ expectations, even when the deal closes on time and at the target value. The breakdown is rarely in the legal documents or the financial model. It shows up when the organization is not ready, the right leaders are not in place or not aligned, and the handoff does not equip the next team to succeed.

Research on owner-readiness shows that many owners underestimate the leadership and organizational work required for a successful transition, even when they have done the financial planning.

Most exit planning conversations focus on:

• The current and projected value of the business

• Tax and legal structures

• Investment and retirement strategies

Those pieces are essential, but they do not answer questions like:

  • What needs to change in how we lead, communicate, and delegate so the business is truly exit‑ and succession‑ready, not just financially attractive?

  • What will this business need from its next generation of leaders so it can thrive without any one person at the center?

  • How do we prepare successors and the broader leadership team to make confident decisions that owners and senior executives are no longer making for them?

  • How do we want the handoff to feel for successors, key leaders, long‑time employees, and investors – and what support do they need from us to get there?

  • What role does each of us (owner, successor, PE or investment partner, and HR/People leader) want to play in developing the people who will take over, and how long should that leadership transition realistically take?

These are coaching questions. They require time, reflection, and a trusted partner. That is where Betsy focuses.

A Different Kind of Exit Planning Advisor

Through One Percent Today, Betsy brings a coaching-centered approach to exit planning that focuses on the people behind the business as much as the transaction itself.

Betsy is not a financial advisor or a wealth manager. She is an executive coach with deep experience in environments where ownership and leadership are constantly evolving.

Her background includes work in venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, and private equity-backed organizations. She has been in rooms where companies are bought, sold, scaled, and integrated, and knows the price that’s paid when the human side of the transition falters.

Think of Betsy as the personal readiness and leadership specialist on your exit team. Others focus on what needs to happen on paper. She focuses on what needs to happen within leaders so that the transition works in real life.

How Betsy Works With Business Owners

Exit planning is a process, not a single deadline. True to the One Percent Today philosophy, the work focuses on small, consistent shifts in how you think, lead, and structure your business so that you are steadily more ready for what is next.

Her work is grounded in the Value Acceleration Methodology, which looks at three connected dimensions of readiness.

The Three Legs of the Stool

  1. Personal Readiness
- This is about the life and identity of the people involved in the transition, beyond their current roles. For an owner, that might mean asking: What do I want my days to look like and what will give me a sense of purpose when I am no longer at the center of the business? For successors and key leaders, it might be: What kind of leader do I want to become and how does this next role fit into the life I am building? For PE and investment partners, it includes understanding how personal goals and timelines align with the value-creation plan for the business.

  2. Business Readiness
- This is about whether the business can thrive without any one individual. Is there a strong, aligned leadership team in place? Are successors identified and genuinely ready? Are systems, processes, and culture strong enough that value does not depend on a single owner, founder, or executive relationship? A more transferable business is usually a more valuable one, whether you are the owner preparing to exit, the successor stepping up, or the investor responsible for stewarding long-term growth.

  3. Financial Readiness
- This is about what each stakeholder needs from the business for the transition to make sense, and whether there is a gap between where you are and where you need to be. For owners, that includes the financial resources required to support the life they want after exit. For successors and leaders, it can mean clarity on compensation, incentives, and opportunity. For PE and investment firms, it includes return expectations and timing. For investment and tax decisions, Betsy partners with your financial and legal advisors or introduces trusted professionals so the people work and the financial work stay connected.

Betsy’s coaching focuses on the first two legs: personal and business readiness. She helps leaders build the clarity, self-awareness, capacity, and organizational health that make a successful next chapter possible.

The Numbers Do Not Lie

Exit planning is easy to postpone until it feels urgent. The research suggests that waiting has a cost.

Key themes from national owner-readiness studies and exit reports include:

  • Research from the Exit Planning Institute shows that while 76 percent of business owners plan to exit within the next 10 years, roughly half have no transition plan in place.

  • A significant share of businesses brought to market never sell, often because they are too owner-dependent or lack transferable value.

  • Many owners report feeling emotionally unprepared for life after the exit, even when financially secure.

These findings highlight a gap that matters to owners, successors, and investors. When personal, business, and leadership readiness are addressed early, everyone at the table gains more options, more control over timing and terms, and a much higher likelihood that the transition feels like a win in real life, not just on paper.

Coaching gives owners, successors, and leadership teams a structured way to close that gap by aligning goals, building true successor readiness, and reducing the owner‑dependence and emotional whiplash that cause so many transitions to fall short of their potential.

  • Betsy’s background is in executive coaching combined with real experience in venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, and private equity-backed companies. She focuses on the leadership, identity, and human side of exit planning while collaborating with your financial and legal team.

  • For most meaningful transitions, yes. A comprehensive exit or succession touches financial, legal, operational, and deeply human factors. Your investment bankers, financial advisors, CPAs, and attorneys are essential for valuation, structure, tax, and deal terms. A CEPA® trained executive coach adds a different dimension by working with owners, successors, and leadership teams on clarity, readiness, and behavior, aligning individual goals, energy, and leadership capacity with the strategy on paper. Together, they create a more complete and realistic path that reduces owner‑dependence and increases the odds that the people and the business are truly ready when the deal (or handoff) happens.

  • Betsy often coaches both. In many engagements she works with the owner on personal and strategic readiness while also coaching the successor or key leaders who are stepping into larger roles. This helps ensure that the transition is sustainable on both sides: you are ready to let go in a healthy way, and your leaders are ready to take ownership of the business and culture they are inheriting.

  • The earlier the better. For most owners, successors, and investors, three to seven years before a potential transition is ideal. That’s long enough to build leadership bench strength, reduce owner‑dependence, and address gaps in systems, culture, and performance. Starting early also gives space for owners and key leaders to clarify what they truly want next, so the strategy on paper matches the lives they are actually trying to build. Even if the exact timing is uncertain, beginning the conversation now creates a business and a leadership team that is more resilient, more transferable, and more valuable when the right inflection point arrives.

  • You are not alone. Many owners begin coaching with nothing more than a sense that “something will need to change” in the next few years. Coaching helps you clarify what you want, explore options such as family succession, management buyout, private equity, or sale, and align your decisions with what matters most to you. You do not need all the answers to begin.

  • Every engagement is tailored. A typical engagement includes regular one to one coaching sessions, structured reflection work, and practical tools for leading through change.

  • Betsy is based in St. Louis, Missouri and works with many local companies. But, she also works virtually with business owners across the U.S. Sessions can be held by video, which makes it easier to maintain consistency during busy seasons and complex transitions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Let’s Start the Conversation

Whether you are already deep into an exit or succession process or are just starting to sense that a transition is on the horizon, the next step is a conversation, not a commitment.

You bring your questions, your current reality, and your goals as an owner, successor, or investment partner. Betsy brings curiosity, perspective, and the One Percent Today approach to helping you design an exit – and a next chapter – that fits the people, the business, and the results you are working to create.