Exit, Acquisitions & Succession

If you are reading this page, you want something more from your business than you are currently receiving.

Do you want to exit a business partner or other shareholder?

Do you want to sell your business and are not sure where to start?

Do you think an acquisition is the best strategy to get into new markets, push off a competitor or realize a big plan?

Are you wanting to move out of your functional role and build up your management team to takeover running the business, finding your number 2 or make sure all your key leaders have number 2s so knowledge doesn’t leave?

Exit Strategies - All Shareholders and Partners

We have good news and bad news here. The bad news is that most companies in their current state are not in saleable and transferrable condition. Meaning that a buyer would not see your business as their solution for their next stage of growth. Too much value is not captured in the business.

The Good News is, that it is entirely possible to change this situation if you give yourself and your business 18 months to 3 years to become what your ideal buyer is looking for.

If you want your company to give you a return on investment just like you expect from your stocks and property investments, then you have some work to do to make it both transferrable and Saleable. Read about Value Enhancement.  Then Read about Return on Investment. Both articles are in the Solutions Menu at the top of this page.

You need our Decision RoadMap event so you know how to make the decision about whether you should make your business transferrable and saleable and who to sell it for and if all the effort to make it saleable will be worth it. Not every business can become saleable.

In fact, more than 90% of owners will never find buyers for their companies. And it's not because there is a lack of demand amongst buyers to make such acquisitions. Its that business owners like you have not prepared the business so it meets the investment criteria of your ideal buyer.

To find out more about the Decision RoadMap, and if this is your best next step to evaluate your future, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Exit Strategies - One Partner or Shareholder

If you are having trouble with a partner not contributing to the business any longer or who wants to be bought out, you need our Partnership Guide. Email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to request your free copy.

There are many wrong ways to exit a shareholder and one or two right ways. Your best bet is that both you and the partners who want to leave become educated before you can’t communicate any longer without an argument and before any money changes hands.

Buying out a shareholder from company coffers can make the next few years very difficult for the partner who stays behind.

Selling the shares to existing employees may be a better way. But that is a process you want to undertake with the right game plan so that your employees are prepared and financially qualified to make the offer to acquire those shares.

Acquisitions

Finding the right acquisition that satisfies all the reasons you want to make this investment is like finding a needle in a haystack. Without adequate planning, what you want and what you need will not match what you find.

There are many companies that on the surface look like they would get you into new markets, expand your distribution channels or give you top line or bottom line revenue growth. There is often a case for buying a business because they have key star performers you want. But that comes with a lot of other components you need to integrate, not just the people you want.

You will need to dedicate a full time resource to creating the right goals and plan for the acquisition so you know how to say “no” fast as well as to invest the time in finding the right companies.

If the business you want has not been made transferrable and saleable (see the Exit Strategies above), while you may get a deal on the business, it might not be worth it. The value you pay dissolves quickly if the knowledge you were looking for walked out the door after the acquistion.

Often the most vital part of what makes a company worth buying lives in what we call the X-Factor. Poor acquisition integration planning or even, doing any integration of their business into your business can destroy that X-Factor and you won’t discover that until months later when the acquisition isn’t performing as hoped.

Our clients receive pre and post Acquisition checklists with 7 Critical Success Factors and 45 pages of the right questions to ask, and how to uncover what you need to to know to make an informed business decision. It’s an easy to use guide to so your team knows how to spot the red flags that tell you it’s not worth it and the green lights that will prove its the right fit. Don’t leave home without it.

Succession

Every business owner should have developed and mentored a Number 2 that knows how the business makes money and loses money so that person knows how to make crucial decisions with the right information.

Every business owner should also consider whether they are in the right role for their strengths, aspirations, stress level and life satisfaction. Sometimes, it’s better for everyone and the business to replace you with a General Manager whose strength and expertise is to a grow a business to the next level. That’s what smart owners who do who have committed to making their companies saleable.

Your right role may be as chairman of the board, directing that GM.

Do you have a management team that you can rely on to the run the business if you were gone for two months? Every saleable business needs that team who will be staying with the company long after the owners sell.

The key to smart succession strategies is that the right people get placed in roles that fit their strengths, ambitions and abilities and are then mentored by the person in that role. Learning how to mentor is critical. Mentoring requires that people share knowledge and hold crucial “how to” discussions in a way that empowers the number 2, not judges them, not micro manages them and not abandons them after one discussion.

If you want to build your succession team, let’s have a discussion about how to do that in a way that works for all.

For more insights into how we help you exit, acquire and build smart succession plans, check out these articles and our best selling book: