There is precious little useful advice about what it means to exit a business.
The landscape is confused by terms that people really misunderstand. It’s really important to stay focused if you want to make sure you will be able to sell your company one day.
So let’s get the facts straight. If you plan on claiming your wealth from investing the best years of your life in your company, start learning now.
1. Succession planning alone will not be enough to make your company attractive to the next owner, even if that person is your kid.
2. There are many more businesses that will be available for sale over the next five years than there are buyers. To stand out from the crowd in a sellers market, your company has to made ‘saleable’.
3. To become saleable takes 2-4 years. Being saleable means it is exactly what a potential buyer is looking for. You have removed the risks that make a buyer or financier (the lender who will facilitate your kid, partner, or entrepreneur to buy you out) looks for and walks away from.
4. Making your company saleable requires different skills and knowledge than operating your company does. Be prepared to learn how, make changes in your company and get our of your own way. Your need to be at the top and in control can take away that saleability opportunity.
5. Making a company saleable makes it more profitable in the meantime. That means more money to re-invest in the company to make it more attractive for buyers and investors (that’s you!)
6. The biggest windfall in your future will not come from greater profitability (but it helps), waiting for the economy to recover (why wait?), or hiring a successor to take over from you. The day you sell your company is the day that you get a return on your investment. So why are you spending more than 90% of your time inside your company instead of working on the future of your company? Making your company saleable has to be your number 1 priority.
7. There are three critical decision you need to learn how to make now before you start the journey to your exit. Find out how to make them the right way at MakeYourBusinessSaleable.comÂ
