Top 3 Priorities for an Exit Ready Business. In Blackboard Fridays Episode 61, Jacob talks about Business Lifecycle. Need this implemented into your business? Talk to the international business advisor who can do exactly that – Contact Jacob, Learn More, or Subscribe for Updates.

Businesses sell for any number of reasons – out of despair, deperation, necessity … and every now and then, because you’ve built a bloody good businesses and it’s time to turn that success into cash so someone else can drive it to the next phase. (Just ask my fellow director, Matt Noller of businessDEPOT Brokerage – he’s seen it all. [http://businessdepot.com.au/services/business-broking])

Now, in the business lifecycle the Sell Up phase doesn’t mean you HAVE to sell. If you’re youthful and excited, this is the phase where you are best place to escalate your vision and take your company to a whole new level (repeating the lifecycle as a result).

It’s also one of the two best points in the journey to turn that success into a sale. How do you know if you’re ready? What do you do if you are? These are some of the topics covered in this week’s episode as we tak about the Top 3 Priorities for a business in Sell Up.

And as a reminder…

Every business moves through the same lifecycle. EVERY. Business. Understand the business lifecycle, as it applies to your business and where every one of your clients is situated, is so fundamental an entrepreneurial skill that the lifecycle sits atop ‘The businessDEPOT Way’ and was the topic of #BlackboardFridays Episode 2 way back in 2016.

This is the fourth in the series of episodes where we dive deeper into each of the four phases in the lifecycle: Start Up, Scale Up, Step Up, and Sell Up.

Wherever you are in your business, one of these will have immediate relevance. If your clients are also business owners or businesses, then watching each of these will help you better understand, service, and sell to your customers.

Who is Jacob Aldridge, Business Coach?

“The smart and quirky advisor who gets sh!t done in business.” Back independent since 2019.

Since April 2006, I’ve been an international business advisor providing bespoke solutions for privately-owned businesses with 12-96 employees.

At this stage you have proven your business model, but you’re struggling to turn aspirations into day-to-day reality. You are still responsible for all 28 areas of your business, but you don’t have the time or budget to hire 28 different experts.

You need 1 person you can trust who can show you how everything in your business is connected, and which areas to prioritise first.

That’s me.

Learn more here. Or Let’s chat.

Transcript

Welcome to the fourth and final in this Blackboard Fridays series, diving deeper on the business lifecycle to give you a competitive advantage. Now if you think it’s been exhausting watching this series of videos, how would you feel living that business lifecycle over 25 years or more?

Indeed, very few businesses are actually successful enough to make it all the way to the sell up phase. We’ve talked before about how half of all businesses that start, fail at this speed bump. The three most common points for businesses to fall over are the speed bump, hurdle, and brick wall in between startup, scale-up, and the step up phase.

Research from Dent Global, the key person of influence, demonstrated that only 6% of businesses actually make it as far as the sell up phase in their business lifecycle. So, if that’s you absolutely as we shared for those businesses as well, congratulations and well done.

Now, if you’re watching this video because you’re thinking about selling, then understand there are two great points in the business lifecycle to sell a business. The first is back here in scale up. As you approach that euphoric pinnacle of achieving your initial vision, that’s a great time to sell the business for the next person who can come in with their vision and take it to new heights.

We call this the sell up phase because this is the second great place to sell your business because at this point, you will have created a business which is not dependent on you, which has both a life of its own but also controlled growth and planning as part of that life of its own. So this is another great point to sell a business to realize the value for those decades of work.

Where do most businesses sell? Here, in that brick wall, feeling stuck selling out of despair which is absolutely where I don’t want you to sell your business. So if you’re stuck in that brick wall I’m thinking of getting out, come and have a conversation with my team about how we can implement those step up priorities to get you into the sell up phase where you’re actually going to realize maximum value for your business.

What’s the emotion of sell up like? That optimism is connected with a renewed vision, a renewed vigor for where you’re going to take your operations and that creates hope, hope for you, hope for your team that hope turns into pride. As you implement the last of the changes that get you out of that brick wall, you feel justifiably proud of everything that you’ve created. You are now in a very very small minority of businesses who have managed to make it this far.

The last feeling at this point is fulfilment but its fulfillment for now, for you have a choice coming up. Every justification for sitting there feeling proud, feeling fulfilled for the success that you have created and understand there’s a choice coming.

What are the three priorities for a business in sell up? Of course, just because we call it sell up doesn’t mean that your decision has to be to sell the whole business or even sell part of the business.

The first priority is asking yourself, your family, what’s your number? If I was going to walk into your business today, and offer to buy it from you, what would I have to offer for you to accept? Take some time watch one of our very first Blackboard Fridays episodes about the wealth quadrant for business owners and you may discover that your number is actually lower than you think it is.

You’ve got an opportunity to create financial independence and move into that freedom quadrant right now. Understanding your number also helps you plan for the business growth ahead of you to get to that point where you can sell the business for what you need it.

Point two is ensuring that your business is succession ready. Whether that’s family succession, whether that’s a partial sale, a management buyout, a full sale, full exit whatever it is that you feel is that succession plan for you is your business ready for you to step back or step out of the business.

There’s a lot of different elements that you need to look at to make sure that not only is the business ready but that you are succession ready, that you if you’re stepping out of the business are stepping into something else and not creating that middle impact that I see with a lot of business owners who want to get out but behave as if they don’t.

The third and final strategic priority for a business in the sell up phase is answering that choice question, leverage or legacy? Am I going to sell this business, to exit this business, to leave a legacy for my industry? Or am i game to go around again? Am i game to go, “You know what, I’ve created a new vision. I’ve created new opportunity, I’ve shaken off the last of that brick wall and I’m ready to leverage the heck out of this opportunity.”

Fulfillment…gone in the rearview mirror. I want new challenges, new choices, and I’m so motivated by that that I’m willing to take my business through the lifecycle once again but at a much higher level to create the next great opportunity for me and my life.

If that’s you, fantastic. Congratulations on having made it through the business lifecycle that 94% of businesses don’t make it through and best of luck for tackling it again with all of that new enthusiasm and the expertise that you’ve built going through it once to help create the opportunity and give you the success to do it all again.

I look forward to hearing your story at some point in the future. For everyone else, there are your priorities good luck and thank you for enjoying the business lifecycle series.

Next Steps

Want to learn more about how this can apply to your business? It costs nothing to chat:

• Email me jacob@jacobaldridge.com (I read them all)
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