An exit strategy should be included in all contracts and taken into account when making a bid.

You should consider what will happen when a contract ends: this could be because the contract finishes on the pre-agreed date or it terminates earlier than expected.

Planning for differing scenarios will help you to reduce and spread risk and help you to anticipate (and hopefully avoid) various issues e.g.:

• loss of business/customers and therefore income
• increased costs e.g. of trying to solve contract issues
• reputational damage.

Such contingency planning should make your procedures and your bidding process more efficient if you have identified areas of weakness..

Ideally you should review your exit strategy every year, or when there are any significant changes.