If you have a small business, chances are that you have an end game in mind. If you do not have an end game in mind, now is a great time to get one.
By end game I mean simply, how will you leave the business? Will the business and you be together forever, like lost lovers? Like lost lovers, forever is a mighty long time. And no one seems to live forever. So this is not likely. At some point you are going to want to leave your business either permanently or temporarily. The end game, of course, is leaving permanently. When and how will you want to leave your business is something that will help guide you with some of your very important future decisions.
I had a printer repair business for almost 8 years. For almost 8 years I helped thousands of people and their printers. We offered the best customer service. We had the smartest technicians. We found the smart way to do everything in that business. We did this mostly by finding many not-so-smart ways to do things. Failure breeds success.
Eventually all of this awesome dreaming and doing and creating started to get tiring. Because my heart was no longer in the business. When your heart loses steam for your business, you have a small problem. Your solutions are limited to 1) closing the business and walking away, 2) selling the business or 3) getting someone else to run the business.
I chose #2 and I am glad I did. Your path may be better spent with #2 or #3. Almost every business has some value, so I would avoid #1. Unless of course, time is not on your side.
To get to the point of being able to sell my business I had to get myself removed from the business, as much as practical. Because I did not want to be sold with the business and I had to prove that the business and I were indeed separate. To do that I outsourced everything I could, including incoming phone calls and emails, payroll, anything that did not fit our businesses model of what we offered our clients. The result was a better run company that I did not have to broker to sell.
Realistically it is better to have all of this is in place before you sell your business. For ease of selling at a point down the road and, more currently, so you can enjoy your business more.
What would it mean to your business if you could take time off, or not work a zillion hours every week? What if your business ran extremely well and profitably with you managing for only a few hours each week? Would your life be better? Would it be easier to sell that business when it came time to do so?
Think of your business like a piece of rental property. A potential buyer is going to want to know that they can make money with the income and expenses of this rental. Knowing that some risk is involved, the buyer wants the purchase to be a good investment. If you have a rundown, non-rented, piece of property that you are constantly trying to fix it will be tough to sell. If you have a nice piece of rental property that is almost entirely full with paying renters and you have the maintenance outsourced and you are profitable, the buyer will be very pleased. Get your business to the point that you would consider buying it.
I wish you good luck with the sale of your business, if I can help in any way, please feel free to reach out to me.
James is a Business Coach and Mentor for Draw In Customers Business Coaching in Madison, Wisconsin. When he isn’t dreaming of buying or selling another business, he helps others achieve success in business and beyond. He blogs successfully to the world at www.drawincustomers.com. If you are considering hiring a business coach, take a moment to call James at (608)210-2221. Embrace success, appreciate failure.
