Building wealth
By Nina Kaufman, Esq.As Seen In …
Have you built a job, or built a business?
If you have passion for starting and growing, that’s great.
Don’t care about selling your company? Here’s an invitation:
When you have a sense of the “end game,” you make business easier for yourself in the long run.
Most businesses close because they’re blind-sided by what they didn’t anticipate. Health conditions. Divorce. Partner issues. Necessary relocation. Boredom. The need to free up cash to put a child through college. Business owners say they’ll get ready and deal with this later … but later comes too soon. If the business isn’t sale-ready, it closes. And with that, the final round of value goes.
So, as I tell my clients,
Whether or not you’re eager to sell, enjoy the benefits of getting your business in sale-ready shape.
It lets you can capitalize on market changes. When you build your company to run without you, you have the option to hold out for more money. Far better than being desperate to retire and unload the business (it’s called a “fire sale”). It also buys you time to keep tabs on important indicators in your industry and the economy overall.
It frees up your time. You work fewer hours the more systems you put in place. So you can start a new venture. Spend time with family. Engage with a passion project. Or just enjoy owning the business.
Here are some of the top tips I’ve shared with clients and other successful business owners to get their business in sale-ready shape:
1. Document repeatable systems
2. Track the numbers, like EBITDA, debt loan, and profits
3. Build a team with decision-making power so customers have confidence in your staff—not just you
4. Make sure contracts for key employees, leases, and IP ownership can be transferred to another entity
5. Innovate, so your business has a special edge. This could be a “special sauce” or methodology you use to serve clients. A “point system” to objectively evaluate a condition that’s usually subjective (like hiring people, assessing priorities). Or a training or tech component to your services
6. Take a 3-week vacation to test your systems. (If you’re away for only one week, people will wait until you return)
Want to keep your best options open by getting your business into sale-ready shape?
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