For me and almost all of the small business owners I know - and I know a lot of them - there is but one goal in the end.
That goal is to build a company that is strong enough to be A) acquired by a larger company for a large sum or B) acquired by employees at an amount equal to or greater than a nice pension.
I would have preferred A, but I worried about what the larger company might do to the great employees. So I chose B.
Everyone is happy.
I would say that there are a lot of businesses that don't have either of those goals. I generally use the term "lifestyle businesses" for those.
One example would be a brewery that has no desire to be the next Sierra Nevada or Samuel Adams. It's generally started by someone who knows they have to earn a living, has a passion for beer, and would rather start a small brewery so that they work for themselves doing something they love rather than going to some job working for someone else that they dread every morning. All they really want is a business that they can control and that pays them enough money to live the lifestyle they want. More is always good, but they're not getting into it with an "exit strategy" of being acquired. (Not that they'd turn down a few million in most cases, of course, but there are rarely prospective buyers of this type of brewery willing to spend it.)
Another example is my dad. He spent his career as a self-employed architect. He actually worked for a big firm in Chicago early in his career. He even had some design work on the Hancock Building. He was a "rising star" and could have risen up the ranks in that firm, getting loftier and loftier titles and taking on more and more management responsibility. But he hated it. So he started his own firm. His office was most of the bottom floor of our house (absent garage and laundry room). My entire childhood he usually had one draftsman working for him (occasionally two). He taught architecture at College of Dupage on the side and loved it. He always had enough work coming in that he could turn down work, and never advertised--he stayed busy entirely through referrals. He did it because he loved the creative work of being an architect and working for himself gave him the freedom to earn a living without a lot of the BS that comes from "going to work". He could have grown that practice any time he chose--but he liked it the way it was and it (plus my mom's income) gave them enough income to raise three kids out in the suburbs.
For a business like a neighborhood brewery, the exit strategy is to sell it for a modest sum (essentially what it would cost someone else to start a brewery) when you're ready to retire, unless perhaps you pass it down in the family. For something like my dad, it was to retire and just close shop because the business had no sale value without him doing the drawing.
I think a lot of lifestyle businesses are started because the owner needs to earn a living, and just wants to do it on their own terms.
