A 5 year exit strategy is a plan to make your business sellable, and sell it, within five years, using that runway to fix the things that decide your price.
Five years is enough time to change the number a buyer will pay. You use it to build recurring revenue, get yourself out of daily operations, spread client concentration so no single account dominates, and produce two or three years of clean management accounts. Do that work and your options widen: a trade sale, a management buyout, or an Employee Ownership Trust all become realistic. Leave it to the last few months and you take whatever you are offered. Time is the one thing you cannot buy back at the negotiating table. See the types of business exit strategy explained to pick your route.