Once an entrepreneur has become established and they have built their business to a point where it can become self-sufficient or the infrastructure is strong enough to withstand a transferRead More
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]]>Once an entrepreneur has become established and they have built their business to a point where it can become self-sufficient or the infrastructure is strong enough to withstand a transfer of power, there are many questions that should be asked. Exiting a business that you have built is not a decision that should be made quickly, so take a moment to ponder the following questions before making a choice that could adversely affect your destiny.
Here are the top questions some authors on exit planning suggest entrepreneurs ask before exiting a business:
Entrepreneurs often make the mistake of stepping away from their business too quickly, before the business has had a chance to grow to a point where exiting is feasible. Most business experts recommend taking at least two years to properly evaluate the marketplace and their business’ place in the landscape. Business trends that can torpedo everything you’ve built can emerge seemingly overnight and scuttle even the best laid plans.
In order to get the best sale price for your business or pass it down to the next person in line, you need to be able to show all of the correct paperwork. Entrepreneurs will often try to execute a rapid transfer, but you need a great deal of time to ensure that your exit goes smoothly. If you are planning on being able to exit your business within a month or two, you should reconsider this plan.
Putting together the correct plan for exiting your business takes years of careful preparation. Do not allow yourself to be swayed by those who present you with plans that entail walking away in a more expeditious fashion.
Before you exit your business and pass it on, you should know what members of your current team are going to remain in place after the transition has been made. You will also need a team that can help you through the transitional period. This means hiring experienced business attorneys, accountants and appraisers. If you are inexperienced in these matters (and even if you aren’t), you should bring in a consultant to provide valuable advice.
Having a team to guide you through the process of exiting your business gives you the help you need in avoiding a variety of common pitfalls. You should also know which members of your current team wish to remain on board after the transition period has been completed. Some team members may wish to exit as well, in order to pursue new opportunities. Others may decide that they wish to remain a part of the company, but may be concerned about potential changes to their role.
In the business world, certain periods are much more tumultuous than others. As a result, the timing may not be right for you to step away from the business that you carefully shepherded through its infancy and watched grow into what it has become. A lot of entrepreneurs choose the wrong times to sell their business or hand it down to the next person in line.
If you are trying to exit your business during a period of decline, don’t. In order to think like a true entrepreneur, you must strike when the iron is hot. The best time to exit your business is when things are on an upswing. Stepping away when you are at the peak of your powers is incredibly difficult, but necessary.
When you decide to remain at the helm during a period of prosperity, this is thinking with the mind of a business owners, not the mind of an entrepreneur. Make sure the timing is right before handing your company off to the next person.
Is whoever you are passing your business down to ready to handle the responsibility? Is there a strong infrastructure in place that will allow them to succeed, even after you are gone? A business that has become entirely too dependent on its owner is one that is doomed to failure, should they ever decide to exit.
The best businesses are the ones that can still run at maximum efficiency if the owner is not there. Take a moment and consider times in the past when you decide to step away. When you have gone on vacation, was the company able to run properly or were there a variety of hiccups? Or were you never able to go on vacation because you were worried about potential complications?
No one wants to see everything they have worked for crumble the moment they step away. So make sure you know for certain that the business can continue to thrive and grow without your constant presence.
After control of the business has been transferred over, the new executive or executives may need your help to ensure that the transition goes smoothly. Are you willing to remain on board, albeit in a smaller, more advisory type of role? The person who you are handing the company down to could want your help and they may have a certain level of trepidation during the early going.
Before exiting your own business, be sure that the new regime has the ability to hit the ground running. If not, then you may need to stay attached for a little while so that the transition period is not as rocky. Staying on and becoming a consultant can help ease the growing pains for whoever you are passing your company down to.
Finish Big by Bo Burlingham
The Exit Strategy Handbook by Jerry Mills
Sell Your Business for More Than It’s Worth by Michelle Seiler-Tucker
Final Act of Onwership by Jerry Baltus
The Art of Resignation by Steven Feiner
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]]>A summary of things you should know about Finish Big according to Bo Burlingham: Introduction In this episode Bo Burlingham takes a deep dive into his book, Finish Big, whereRead More
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]]>In this episode Bo Burlingham takes a deep dive into his book, Finish Big, where he discusses how great entrepreneurs exit their companies on top.
In his book Burlingham dissects dozens of interviews he made with entrepreneurs that have left their companies and pieces together actionable information that all business owners must know about creating a solid exit plan. The goal of the book is to help you find the right time to exit a business, overcome the stress of leaving a company, and leave your company in better shape.
This book is perfect for seasoned entrepreneurs who are close to meeting all their business goals and are ready to start planning an exceptional exit from their organization.
There are very little amount of books out there on exiting your business and the ones that are out there are all about the financial side of it. This book focuses on the emotional side of things after exiting your business. There are true stories of people who have sold their business and explain what they went through good and bad.
I tried to set the book up so that the reader could jump and in out where needed but you can also read straight through.
If it was only one thing that you could take out of the book I would say it is that you need to start preparing for it early. There is no point that is too early to start preparing and thinking about your exit.
What you will find throughout the book is stories of real people having real experiences in exiting their business.
The introduction is the story of how the book came to be written. I wanted to know the difference between a good exit and a bad exit and in order to do that I had to figure out what a good exit was. I came up with five qualities of a good exit and one is that at the end of the process you feel as though you’ve been fairly treated and appropriately rewarded for the work that you did in building the business. Number two is that you have a sense of accomplishment and you can look back with pride on what you did when you had the business. Number three you are at peace with what has happened to the other people who were on the journey with you. Number four is that you have a new sense of purpose outside the business. And finally it is important to some that the company is still thriving without them.
Chapter one begins with a story of a very good exit and the title of the chapter is Every Journey Ends. You must think about your experience as a business owner as a journey and it’s a journey that has a beginning, middle, and an end. Building a company is the middle of the business and the end of the business is when you decide to leave that company. The other thing I want people to understand is the exit is a phase of the business and not an event. You have the startup phase, you have the growth phase, you have the maturity phase, and you have the exit phase. There are four stages to the exit stage; the first one is what I call the exploratory phase which is when you are educating yourself about what the possibilities are. The second stage to the exit phase is the strategic phase which is when you have an idea of the kind of exit you want and you go about building into your company the qualities that are going to allow you to have that kind of an exit. The third phase is the execution phase, when you actually go out and look for a buyer. Most people start at the third phase without going through phases one and two and it’s a huge mistake. The fourth phase is the most difficult and that’s the transition phase. That’s after you’ve sold the business, what happens between the sale of the business and whatever comes next.
When I looked at the difference between the good and bad exits I came up with seven and a half factors and I really structure the book around those factors. So chapter two is titled Who Am I If Not My Business and it’s about the importance of knowing who you are, what you want, and why. This is something that I have found over and over again in all the years that I have been covering entrepreneurs. Those who do best in terms of building a business and do best in terms of exiting a business have worked very hard on trying to figure out who they are, what they want, and why. The second factor has to do with building a company that’s sellable and what I mean by that is one you can sell when you want, to whom you want, at a price you want. There is something called a forced sell and that happens when something you totally don’t foresee comes along when you have a very good company and all the sudden something happens that catches you by surprise and then you are forced to sell it. It’s very important to understand what a sellable business is and I write about the eight factors that go into it and I also give you other places to go to learn about building a sellable business. The third factor has to do with time. Most business owners do not give themselves anywhere near enough time to do the preparatory work and when I talk about time I am talking in terms of years, not months. The fact is there is no point too early to start at least the exploratory phase and you can do that even before you start the company. The next point is related to not having enough time and that’s about having a successor. And for a lot of people you need to give yourself a lot of time to have a successor.
Chapter six has to do with making sure you get the advice you need and I make a very strong case in here for making sure you have a guide who has been through himself or herself before. These guides have a perspective on it that is different from the perspective you will get from an exit professional because they know the exit doesn’t end with the deal. It’s not over for the business owner and you need somebody guiding you who will understand that. The next factor has to do with what happens to the other people who you’ve been on the journey with. Nobody builds a company alone and you need to be at peace with whatever is going to everyone else who has been with you on the journey.
The sixth factor is what I call Let the Seller Beware. If you are selling a business it’s easy to forget that the buyer is also selling themselves, they are selling themselves that they are going to be a good owner of the company. It’s very important to understand why the buyer wants your business.
The final chapter is called Over The Rainbow and after the sell itself which is sometimes the hardest part. I’ve realized in writing this chapter that there are a lot of things that people get out of their businesses that they are not aware of until they don’t have them anymore. For example a sense of purpose, an identity, a tribe, a sense of accomplishment, and structure and when you suddenly don’t have those things and you haven’t prepared yourself adequately you can feel totally lost. The people who have really good exits figure out how to get them back and usually, because they have money now, they are able to get it back and do what they did before at a higher level.
NOTE: That was just a summary. To get the full deep dive, play the audio clip at 08:20
“You should build your business as if it’s going to last forever but you could sell it tomorrow.” – Bo Burlingham
I am an editor at-large at Inc. magazine and been on staff for 32 years. I co-authored a couple books and I’ve also written Small Giants.
It began with my sometime co-author Norm Brodsky. I had been writing a column with him in Inc. magazine for almost 20 years now. Back in 2006 Norm decided to sell his company and he and I decided to write about it on a month by month basis. From those writings we got a tremendous amount of reader response and I realized that there was a huge appetite out there for understanding the experience of selling a company.
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
Buy Finish Big by Bo Burlingham on Amazon today
Visit BoBurlingham.com to learn more about Bo and his books
Visit SmallGiantsBook.com to learn more about Small Giants
Visit TheKnack.info to learn more about Street Smarts
Visit EvolveUSA.org to learn how Evolve is using Finish Big to build its organization
Follow Bo Burlingham on Facebook and Twitter
Download the full transcript here (coming soon)
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud
Related books:
The Exit Strategy Handbook by Jerry Mills
Walk Away Wealthy by Mark Tepper
Selling Your Business For More Than It’s Worth by Michelle Seiler-Tucker
Relevant advice and tips:
7 Important Things You Need To Know When Selling Your Business
What did you like and not like about this episode? Fill out this one minute survey here.
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]]>A summary of things you should know about Walk Away Wealthy according to Mark Tepper Introduction In this episode Mark Tepper with Strategic Wealth Partners shares his book Walk AwayRead More
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]]>In this episode Mark Tepper with Strategic Wealth Partners shares his book Walk Away Wealthy. This book is the perfect fit for entrepreneurs or business owners looking for an exit strategy for their business plan. This is a book that is specific to building wealth for entrepreneurs and will focus on both the liquid and the illiquid investments. As an entrepreneur this is really the only book you need to read on wealth management.
This is a book that is specific to building wealth for entrepreneurs. It will focus on both the liquid and the illiquid investments and as an entrepreneur this is really the only book you need to read on wealth management because it covers both sides of the equation.
I would recommend reading it from beginning to end. It’s broken up in to three different sections and chronologically set up to be read that way.
Planning is a process, not an event. The longer you wait to get started, the less money you’re ultimately going to get for your business. Begin your financial and exit plan as soon as possible and continue to revise it along the way.
There are three main sections in the book; building value, monetizing value and preserving value. We have twelve different secrets that you need to know if you really want to have the most financially successful life as an entrepreneur.
Secret #1 is creating your exit plan before you need it. What this chapter talks about is there is a misconception that you don’t need to focus on your exit plan until you are ready to sell and the fact is you should begin working on your exit plan the day you start your company. Even if you are a startup you need to start focusing on what you are eventually going to get out of that business. The only reason you should be going into a business is to hopefully one day sell it at a substantial profit.
Secret #2 is knowing the value of your business. One of the biggest issues that entrepreneurs have is they are emotionally attached to their businesses and because of that they over value their company. We talk about how evaluations are calculated and how to go about determining your valuation without costing an arm and leg.
Secret #3 is value is more than cash flow. Earning is important but there are two parts of the valuation equation which is earnings times a multiple. The multiple is going to be determined based on how risky a company is in the eyes of the acquirer. The most risky the company appears to be, the lower the multiple, therefore the company is not worth as much. The less risky it is, the higher the multiple. This chapter focuses on how to increase the multiple.
Secret #4 is how to make yourself expendable and it talks about how to remove yourself from the operations of the business. You need to build a business that can stand on its own and we talk about how to do that.
We then hop into the monetizing section of the book and the first secret there is selling is your best exit option. If you are looking for the best financial reward, the best way you can go about doing that is by selling to a third party. We talk about how complicated that process can be but we also try to explain it so that there’s no curve balls if and when you do decide to go through that process.
The next secret in that section is if you can’t or won’t sell, consider an internal transfer. An internal transfer would be possibly selling to your family members, your key employee or your management team. Unfortunately, if you decide to go that path, you are not going to get the same financial payday. We are going to tell you how to go about doing that in the most efficient manner possible.
The next secret is to never sell your business yourself. In our experience a good investment banker is worth their weight in gold. They are typically able to get you significantly more money than what their commission cost you. What we do in this section is we talk about how complicated the process can be, how you can screw it up if you try to do it alone and we map out exactly how investment bankers get paid. There is more to a good deal than a sale price. This chapter is all about what are the other terms of the deal that you need to pay close attention to.
The last section of the book is preserving value. The first secret there is having a financial adviser create your personal financial plan. What we focus on is to do it now, don’t wait until after the sale. The next secret is plan for the unexpected and make sure you are covered if anything happens. The secret after that is to not bet your retirement on starting another successful business. We talk about ways to protect you from starting another business, losing all your money and then having to go and find a job because that puts you in a pretty awful situation.
The last secret is to find something to fill the void after your liquidity event. Identify what it is that you’re really passionate about prior to selling your business and pursue those passions after.
There is a term that I refer to that kind of summarizes the purpose of the book and that term is irreversible financial mistake.
“Once you sell your business you can’t give the money back and start growing it again, it’s a done deal; it’s time for you to move on.”
I own a wealth management firm called Strategic Wealth Partners based out of Cleveland Ohio. Our focus is on working with entrepreneurs and taking care of their wealth management needs.
I am married and have three kids who are seven, almost five and almost three.
The majority of my clients are entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs tend to have very unique wealth management situations. Entrepreneurs need to focus on building and growing both their liquid investments but also their illiquid wealth, growing that is just as important, if not more. What we found is on average about 80% of entrepreneurs net worth is tied up in his or her illiquid business. And additionally most entrepreneurs are only going to sale that business one time and that is going to be the most significant financial event of their life. We really wanted to put together a book that looked at both sides of the wealth management equation.
The E-Myth by Michael Gerber
Buy Walk Away Wealthy by Mark Tepper on Amazon today
Visit SWPconnect.com to email, call, or learn more about Mark
Follow Mark Tepper on Twitter
Download the full transcript here
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud
Related books: Final Act of Ownership by Jerry Baltus | From Idea To Exit by Jeff Weber | Sell Your Business For An Outrageous Price by Kevin Short
Relevant advice and tips: 7 Important Things You Need To Know When Selling Your Business
What did you like and not like about this episode? Fill out this one minute survey here.
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