Winding down their business and selling any assets was the plan for 13 percent of respondents, while 9.6 per cent said they would pass over management to family members and a further 9.6 per cent planned to sell their business to key employees.
The finding that many business owners are unplanned for exit gels with insights from other research.
A study of New Zealand SME owners carried out by business management solutions firm MYOB last year, for example, found just 39 per cent had an exit strategy in place, and only 36 per cent had established the value of their business.
Lance Hodgson and his wife Mary are owners of Out in the Styx Guesthouse - a bed and breakfast venture that has four part-time staff and is based in rural Waikato. The guesthouse is situated about halfway between Rotorua and the Waitomo Caves, and sits at the foot of Maungatautari Mountain, where installation of the world's largest predator-proof fence has created a mainland "ecological island" and a sanctuary for wildlife.
The couple originally ran the business as a restaurant, but have gradually grown and transformed it into an accommodation provider as an increasing number of visitors from outside the area have been drawn to visit the mountain or local cycle trails and roads.
The couple have been operating the business for 19 years, and Hodgson says the subject of exit strategies is particularly topical as their baby boomer generation hits the retirement years.
"I'm born in 1955 and I believe there are a lot of people in my age group who are reaching these kinds of decisions," he says.
The couple actively tried to sell the business last year, but the market wasn't receptive - Hodgson believes in large part due to the amount of cooking that's required in running the venture.
Since then, however, the couple's youngest son, who's currently at university in Wellington, has expressed an interest in one day coming into the business - forming the basis of what Hodgson calls a "vague" exit strategy.
"Our youngest son obviously spent a lot of time here and still does, and he's expressed an interest in a few years' time in moving back and stepping in and taking it over," he says.
"So our exit strategy might be just like that of a farm. Maybe in a bit of time they'll finance themselves into half the place and we jobshare, then hopefully they'll build up a bit of equity and we agree on a disappearance strategy."
The couple have been heavily involved in the Maungatautari ecological restoration project since its inception, says Hodgson, and it's gratifying to see the rural area start to draw international tourists. In one recent weekend Out in the Styx hosted visitors from the US, Canada and Belgium.
"It's great to see those tourists choosing to come here - that's good for us, good for the Waikato, and good for New Zealand," he says. "I really feel that we've built up something that is unique here, and it would be nice to see it carry on."
ASB Ambition
Part 10 of a Business Ambition series in partnership with ASB, based on a survey conducted over six weeks and giving insights into the ambitions, concerns, wants and needs of NZ businesses.
