As a business owner you face many challenges as you start to grow and then look to transition out of your business. To assist you in understanding and addressing some of the many challenges you face on your journey, I have crafted a weekly series of short introductory articles and have compiled several cases studies to highlight these challenges and provide some best practice advice to consider for growing, and then preparing your business for a successful transition.
In this article, my second for 2023, I discuss strategic planning as an imperative, and why it is important to create a business that is not only successful but which is also an asset with sellable value. While every business has value, the question is whether it has salable value (value to a buyer) and not just to the business owner, as these are two very different perspectives.
These weekly articles are designed to stimulate thinking about getting yourself personally prepared and your business exit ready and attractive for that future buyer. Most owners get one chance to get it right, and while not being ready should not be an option, many owners cannot sell the business they built (1 in 10 actually sells successfully) because they did not build an asset. If you must sell your business to fund your future lifestyle, ask yourself – do you want to be the one that does, or one of the nine who could not?
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