We’ve been helping customers prepare to sell their business to get the highest price.
And we’ve also teamed up with a couple of businesses who facilitate the exit to sale process.
Broadly, it works like this.
- Get the owner out of the day to day.
- Grow the business some more.
- Facilitate the exit to sale.
Our expertise is focussed on the first part “get the owner out of the daily ops” and to some extent the second piece with Revenue Ops for good measure.
Whether you are thinking of selling in the near future or not, getting you out of the day to day gives you choice.
It will increase the value if you sell or if you want to hold onto your business, giving you the choice to play the part of “investor” or “visionary”.
If I was to distill what good looks like into 4 points, it looks like this:
1. Focus on Specialization
- 80/20 Rule: Prioritize strengths. While exploring new ideas is valuable, the majority of effort should go toward areas where you excel.
- Specialization Communicates Your Value: A clear focus defines your business to the market (e.g., SEO, Google Ads, Email Marketing).
- Benefit of Productization: Specializing allows for systemization and productization, making services less flexible but more scalable.
2. Creating Processes & Systemizing
- Scalability Through Systemization:
- Products enable systemized delivery, sales processes, pricing, and customer service.
- Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) allow staff training and efficient operations.
- Authority and Promotion: Focusing on one product helps establish authority and simplifies promotion.
- SOP Creation and Accountability:
- Business owners don’t need to write SOPs themselves; they can delegate.
- Each SOP needs to be “owned” by 1 person. Many people can be responsible for its execution.
3. Build a Sales Machine
- Value of Systemized Sales: Buyers want assurance that sales will continue seamlessly post-owner transition.
- Common components of a Sales Machine:
- Marketing Ads: Drive leads into the sales funnel.
- Sales Team: Ideally, have at least two salespeople capable of selling the product.
- Systematic Referrals: Leverage existing clients to generate new leads, particularly effective for lean businesses.
- Retention and Recurring Revenue: Subscription models provide a steady revenue stream, effectively automating sales.
4. Empower Management
- Delegation Challenges:
- Founders often get stuck in daily delegation, managing touchpoints across the business.
- Buyers want a self-sustaining business, they aren’t buying a business to take on a “job”.
- Solution:
- Hire or develop a single capable manager to oversee projects and operations.
- Delegate outcomes, not just tasks, and focus on coaching and accountability.
- Regular communication (e.g., scheduled meetings and chat updates) helps streamline operations.
Talk soon,
Lloyd
PS – Getting an external perspective of your business can have a massive ROI, especially if you are thinking of selling.
Want to explore getting an operational assessment for your business? Let’s chat.
