Welcome back to my weekly articles on business building. If part of your plan is to sell your business, it will be critically important not only for you to understand how buyers will value your business, but also understand the different types of buyers there are, so that you can prepare your company for the best possible outcome when you sell. Just as you have the ability to determine where you lie within the Range of Value (ROV) by focusing on Best-In-Class operations, you also have the ability to position your company so that you get to choose the type of buyer that best fits your exit goals. The question, as always, is are you prepared to do the work necessary to ensure you get the opportunity to make that choice.
Most owners get one chance to get it right when they decide to sell, yet most owners cannot sell the business they built (only 1 in 10 are successful) because they did not build a sellable asset. If selling your business to fund your future lifestyle is a must, ask yourself whether you are prepared or not, and then identify what you need to do to get to where you need to be.
With up to 76% of Canadian businesses reporting that they hope to exit in the next 10 years, being unprepared might cost you both your legacy and your retirement. With only 1 in 10 having a plan, the odds against are not in an owner’s favor.
