It has been said that 95% of businesses fail within the first five years. Congratulations, you are now one of the 5%! Now that your business is making some profit that you can get a return on, what do you think you need to do? You have a lot of choices, and now would be a good time to sit down and focus on what the next step is for your business.

Make absolutely sure you can move ahead

Before you decide to put money into something outside of your main business, make sure the business is absolutely sound. Maybe you could invest more of your money into the business and make it grow even more. You have to decide if you are as comfortable and if the industry you are working in has boom-and-bust cycles that you need to be prepared for.

Take a final look at your books and how much inventory you are moving now, and look at how much you would like to continue moving in the future. Try to make a one-year plan, a five-year plan, and a 10-year plan to really understand your long-term goals and if the business you are in now fits them.

Consider starting a second business or side gig

Once you have made an accounting of your current position, you now have a chance to see what your options are. Since you looked at how much money you have, you can at this point decide whether you want to build your business further, invest in an ETF (like NYSEARCA:RYU), or start a second business. You may want to create those multiple sources of income that the hustle culture guys talk about, and starting another business is a good way to go.

You have the option of both starting a new business and investing in a franchise. There are all sorts of franchises for all income groups. You should start something that has a low start-up cost and is relatively hands-off. You can also take this idea to buy a business that’s already running and then you can make some money off of that. It is important at this point that you take inventory of how much time you have to invest in a new business. If possible, you should go for something that is as passive as possible for the sake of your free time.

Find your investment options

If you are looking for passive investments, it would be wise for you to check out the many different avenues for creating a secondary income by acquiring assets. It can be as simple as real estate or stocks with dividends, or you can get into more specialized investments like bottles of wine or art.

This is also a good opportunity to take a look at your time management. Perhaps it would free up your time to buy assets that appreciate in value as opposed to investing in things that take more of your time to learn, such as real estate. If you are intending on getting into real estate, see if you have enough money to purchase multi-family homes instead of single-family homes. Over time, the work becomes less for the returns that you would get.

Whatever investment you seek to acquire, make sure you get info on this investment from a good source so that you don’t end up buying something that has no value. Take this opportunity to learn from the best, or hire the best to teach you the right moves to make.

If all else fails, consider planning for retirement

At the end of the day, the main reason we work so hard is that when we are unable to work we have enough money to live. This means you can use the money you’ve made to start putting toward your retirement. You should seek to find an investment that pays a regular percentage each year. This allows you to plan out your returns and compound them for a sizable return once you plan on stopping your work.

You can then combine this with any retirement benefits you may qualify for from the government and live a pretty comfortable life after that. Whatever you decide to do, you should continue adding to your success so that you can stop, relax, and do what you would really like to do with no interruption.

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