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
The post 5 Questions Entrepreneurs Should Ask Before Exiting A Business appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
]]>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 Sell Your Business for More Than it’s Worth according to Michelle Seiler-Tucker: Introduction In this episode Michelle Seiler-Tucker takes a deep diveRead More
The post A Preview of Sell Your Business For More Than It’s Worth with Michelle Seiler-Tucker appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
]]>In this episode Michelle Seiler-Tucker takes a deep dive into her book, Sell Your Business for More Than it’s Worth, where she shows you how to get a twenty to forty percent higher selling price for a business.
In her book Seiler-Tucker provides valuable advice on the commercial real estate industry, reveals the issues that add value to your business, and many more inside tricks that selling advisors use to maximize the value of a business. The goal of the book is to help you increase your market share, make your business more profitable, develop a solid exit plan, and take advantage of a dying industry.
This book is perfect for entrepreneurs who plan on selling their business in the future, want to discover if their industry in thriving or dying, or simply want to increase the value of their business.
What makes my book unique is that I am an actual business broker and considered a leading authority in buying, selling, and approving businesses. Plus I have owned and operated several successful businesses so I am writing from that perspective.
The book is a step by step process of how to get your business ready to sell and how to sell your business.
I think the most important thing is to plan your exit and build your business to sale.
Chapter one is titled What Will Make My Business Sell For Maximum Value In The Quickest Amount Of Time. In this chapter I walk my readers through everything a buyer looks for and at the end of the day buyers want to know what type of industry you are in. Is it in an industry that is on its way up or on its way out? The first thing we do is talk about industries that are on their way out and industries that are on their way up.
In chapter three we talk about the more years in business the greater the return. If the business owner has only been in business for less than five years the chances are is that they are not going to get a very high multiple for their company.
In chapter four we really dive into the business and we talk about how customers are the fill in your business and without them you run out of gas. We work with our clients and readers in how to expand and improve their client base.
In chapter five we ask the question – is your business based on brown loyalty or location loyalty? Brown loyalty means that consumers go out of their way to purchase your products and services because you have a great brand. Location loyalty means that consumers are coming to your business because you have a convenient location but if you were to lose that location or lease for whatever reason it would be detrimental for your business.
In chapter six we talk about whether you are selling your business or selling a job. This is crucial because many business owners think they have a business but they really have is just a job in which they go to work every day. So we work with our readers and our clients to create a business that works for them rather than them working for it.
Chapter seven is Report All Your Income or Lose Huge Profits in the Sale of Your Business. This is a very difficult process where I come in and help my clients determine what they are really making and help them do financial house cleaning.
Chapter eight is the key elements to determine what a business is really worth and selling it for more.
NOTE: That was just a summary. To get the full deep dive, play the audio clip at 08:03
“No rearview mirrors.” -Michelle Seiler-Tucker
I have always wanted to write even since I was a little girl and I was not your typical little girl. At the age of 10 most girls are playing with dolls but I was walking around with a notebook and pen asking everyone a hundred questions and write short stories based upon what they would say. I have sold hundreds of franchises and businesses for years and many of my clients inspired me to write this book because the sale of a business is very confidential.
Eight out of ten businesses do not sell because the business owners have not planned their exit strategy and the best time to sell is when the business is doing well. The main purpose of the book was to help entrepreneurs plan their exit strategy and know their end game.
The Millionaire Mindset by Thomas J. Stanley
Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
The Art of the Deal by Donald Trump
Buy Sell Your Business for More Than it’s Worth by Michelle Seiler-Tucker on Amazon today
Visit MichellTuckerInternational.com to learn more about Michelle and her book
Visit BetterBusinessBrokers.com to learn more about Michelle’s company and services
Follow Michelle Seiler-Tucker on Twitter and Facebook
Download the full transcript here (coming soon)
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud
Related books:
The Exit Strategy Handbook by Jerry Mills
Sell Your Business for an Outrageous Price by Kevin Short
Final Act of Ownership by Jerry Baltus
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.
The post A Preview of Sell Your Business For More Than It’s Worth with Michelle Seiler-Tucker appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
]]>A summary of things you should know about The Exit Strategy Handbook according to Jerry Mills: Introduction In this episode Jerry Mills shares all his insights on his book, TheRead More
The post A Preview of The Exit Strategy Handbook with Jerry Mills appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
]]>In this episode Jerry Mills shares all his insights on his book, The Exit Strategy Handbook, where he reveals the best way business owners can prepare themselves for selling a business.
In his book Mills walks you through a step-by-step preparation process and a host of extensive check lists that can be used as a guide for holding your financial advisor accountable when it comes to exiting your business. The goal of the book is to help you get the most value for your business and work the system when it comes to a competitive buyers market.
This book is perfect for entrepreneurs and small business owners who have little to no experience in exit strategy planning and want to be prepared when the time comes to sell.
This book is the only one of its kind that actually takes the business owner through the process. It’s also a living, breathing book, and there is software that is associated with it.
You can jump in and out based on the information you need.
Typically a company who is prepared for a transaction is going to be much better than one who is not prepared and sometimes it takes years for the preparation. So the preparation is the key component and that’s typically where business owners cut corners.
We did a proprietary survey of business owners at the Inc 500/5000 conference and award ceremony in Washington DC in 2013 and published the results in the introduction of this book.
In chapter one of the book we talk about who needs this book and that’s typically owners of private account businesses that want to someday do something with their business. This book is not driven by who might buy this book but rather by the needs of the business owners.
We talk about the future and what the next 20 years is going to look like. Is it going to be a buyers’ market or a sellers’ market? We take in to account a lot of the statistics and analysis of baby boomers.
In chapter three we talk about the importance of building a team which is the kickoff of the success of a process. Most business owners don’t know who should even be on their team and our process helps the business owner with those decisions.
Chapter four is an issue that 99% of business owners will have happen to them if they ever engaged a merger and acquisition or investment banker to help them. That is calculating the realistic value of the company. Almost every business owner has a generic feel of what their company is worth and that generic feel is not always scientific and it also doesn’t reflects the market in terms of what a potential buyer considers the company is worth. We take you through the process of how a business owner can know what a potential buyer might think about the value of their company.
Typically when the business owner knows the value of their company often they want to know how they can grow the value. In this next chapter we explain the process of how to build value in the interim period to sell a business. We also talk about the role that the business owners should or should not be doing during this period of time.
Chapter six is titled Preparing for the Last Customer and we go through the philosophy that business owners are incredible at knowing what their client wants in term of what they do on a day to day basis. We want to use that same logic to prepare for the last customer which is the buyer. So we talk about what the buyer is looking for, what they want, what are the negative spots, and some of the things that we can do to cater that to the buyer.
Chapters 8 through 25 are series of checklists that we recommend that business owners consider doing on topics such as documenting their product and service lines, documenting the competition, and key customer information. Other things we go through in the book are the dos and don’ts of contracts and leases, litigation and claims, and taxes.
The last chapter is about how to track all of this complexity and there is a very simple way that we have developed for the business owner to be in charge of the entire process at all times.
NOTE: That was just a summary. To get the full deep dive, play the audio clip at 03:53
“A well prepared business gets more offers and usually better offers than a less prepared one.” -Jerry Mills
I went to Arizona State University, spent a good deal of my career with Arthur Anderson & Co., and started to be CFO in 1987. I’m also proud to be the father of four children and almost six grandchildren.
All through my career I have been on the side of helping business owners sell their companies and through quite a few transactions. In one particular I saw the frustration business owners go through; it’s very stressful and a difficult process. I also went on Amazon and ordered and read the top 25 books on this subject and found that nobody was covering it.
As A Man Thinketh by James Allen
Buy The Exit Strategy Handbook by Jerry Mills on Amazon today
Visit B2BCFO.com to learn more about the book and Jerry’s company
Download the full transcript here (coming soon)
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud
Related books:
Sell Your Business For An Outrageous Price by Kevin Short
Final Act of Ownership by Jerry Baltus
Walk Away Wealthy by Mark Tepper
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.
The post A Preview of The Exit Strategy Handbook with Jerry Mills appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
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