Why you Should Always be Preparing Your Business for Sale – Even When It’s Not For Sale!

by Mark Edwards

If you are not constantly preparing your business for sale, then you have already sold it - To yourself! And, guess what? You have probably bought a dud!

The idea that a company should be constantly readying itself to be sold, even when the prospect of selling the company may be several years in the future, is, I believe, a very good one.

How would it feel to have your business assessed by an external agent?

Imagine, for a moment, that an external specialist from your industry will tomorrow, be given access to scrutinise all aspects of your company. Imagine that the expert who will be arriving at your door is of above average intelligence, will not miss anything and will not be confused by clever sales talk by way of explanation. All they will see are the facts! When you assure them that you have a clearly defined and communicated sales process yet, when questioned, your sales people cannot articulate, follow or even describe this process that you say is ingrained within your company, then everything will be laid bare for them to see. How does that thought make you feel? - Having the unbiased outsider delve deep within your company?

Let’s consider another scenario: what if you were possessed of super powers and could make time stand still for six months whilst you implemented changes to your business? What would you do first? - What would you change?

Once time began running again, what difference would the changes you had undertaken make to the future operating success of your business? - Would you make more profit or earn less? - Would your business life be more or less stressful?

Always Prepare Your Business for Sale – Yes, Even When It’s Not “For Sale”! 

The sad fact is that none of us is possessed of the super powers to stop time, allowing ourselves the freedom to operate in a time vacuum whilst we “sort out” the business.

The difference between knowledge and wisdom

The first is ‘knowing’ or ‘being aware’, the second, WISDOM, is making use of what you know! Incidentally, those same changes you planned to make while time stood still, will almost certainly be those that would make the business easier to manage, more efficient and potentially, more profitable as well.

Many of us have the “Knowledge” to know what needs changing but it is only action that counts. Knowledge is great, but action is greater. Sounding smart will never be an effective substitute for doing something smart within your company to make it stronger, more successful and therefore, more valuable.

Fast, decisive ACTION. Not “SMART” talk, meetings and reports!

To make changes in your business, you need to work quickly and only measure progress through actions taken - not talk and decisions. Simply making a decision will not change anything, therefore, meetings and reports should not be defined as action.

You need leaders with previous, hands-on experience of this type of work and the authority to take the lead. Having such people on the payroll is not always an option for SME’s as highly experienced executives will not necessarily be attracted to your company. Those that you need most will probably not find you attractive as a full-time employer. However, working for a few days, alongside an internal executive, to transfer their experience, could be an option for some in a “Rent-a-Talent” scenario.

You need to CHANGE what you do to get different RESULTS!

In order to create a more valuable business than you have done historically, you will need to take different actions; you may also need a completely different mindset - Doing what you have always done will give you what you have always got! To summarise: in order to build the value of your business, you will need to:

  • Attract TALENT (Full-time. Part-time. Ad hoc)
  • Have ACTIVE partners: be CONNECTED to Centres of INFLUENCE
  • Have a CLEAR USP and VALUE Proposition
  • Have DEFINED, internal, Business Processes that MEASURE ONLY what really MATTERS
  • Have ACCESS to COST-EFFECTIVE KNOWLEDGE and WISDOM that RESULTS in tangible ACTION
  • Have a STRATEGY to DELIVER value to your Shareholders
  • Have an END GAME GOAL that points your whole TEAM in the SAME Direction
  • Finally, and most importantly, have a strategy and mechanism for MAXIMISING your trade sale value

To achieve the above, please don’t fall into the trap of hiring an expensive consultant who will wow you with “Smart Talk”, Fancy Presentations and Complex Diagrams, created by pure analyst academics, who have never been on the front line, breathing life into their own business. Such elaborate presentations, accompanied by hyperbole galore, rarely translate into EFFECTIVE ACTION and even less often, into RESULTS. You need to move quickly, seeing action and achieving results via the simplest route. To maximise your chances of success, you need real-world, front line, hands on experience from executives who are ‘doers’ not ‘talkers’ and who will get the job done.

Boss Equity’s Equity Value Accelerator

  • Would you like a whole team of such people waiting in the wings for when you need them most?
  • Would you like this team to have specific experience in your sector?
  • Would the prospect of "Renting Talent" to manage a specific project or quickly provide a solution to a problem within your organisation, be attractive and useful to you?

If you answer “Yes!” to any of these questions, please:

21 June 2017