Options and alternates is an essential fact of development and progress. Even when your business is doing great and you have everything going for you, it may not be a bad idea to take a step back and reflect. Reflect on what you want to do and where you want to go. Is this something you want to do all your life? Can you imagine stopping to publish your website? Many of us cannot imagine what if - but as a good planner it is imperative to have an exit strategy.

When you consider an exit strategy, the three available options are:

1. Sell the Site. The first option is to sell a profitable site and make a handsome one time profit. If a site is profitable, it will always have a number of interested customers. You may chose to sell your site to a competitor who may want to expand his business, a content contributor who may find it profitable to get a business for which he is contributing the content, or a subscriber who may be interested in taking on the business.

However, when you sell the business, ensure that the contract caters to your commitment to subscribers who have already signed on and paid for the subscription. This would cater to any future plans on a new business where you would have an established track record and customers would already have established trust in your services.

2. Convert the site into a self-maintaining site. This can be achieved by converting all the content available on your site into individual .pdf reports. Now all these reports can be sold piece meal to individuals online. Your commitment to the site can be reduced by closing facilities such as the discussion forum as these need to be moderated and require a presence. As a second step, you could also give out the pdf reports to all subscribers free of cost and also offer them a pro rata refund for services that could not be provided.

The major advantage of this strategy is that you would get relieved of your responsibilities of maintaining the site and services on a daily basis. You would not be committed to regular interaction with the subscribers and yet all your content would continue to sell. The content shall be delivered online and instantaneously.

However, this option entails adequate finances as back up as this would be required to pay off all your subscribers.

3. Shut the site down. A non - viable solution but still an exit option would be to just close down the site. This too requires that you pay off all subscribers and thus a heavy expenditure is involved.

A well thought out plan is easy to execute. Planning helps in achieving many ends easily. There is no permanence and thinks change. Today the running of the site that excites you and keeps you involved may tomorrow cease to interest you or your health may not permit its maintenance.

These are the instances when you may consider an exit option. This exit option if planned well in time would permit easy transition.

This article was written by Craig Dawber of smarket-associates.com Need advice and guidance with your online business check out the resources found in this website.