Reflections

Productivity initiatives within your company can help increase company value at time of sale

There are two gifts that executives don't often fully leverage in building the long term value, or net worth, of their company. One is pricing strategy, the other is driving productivity initiatives.

Both of these can help your company today, and at time of your future exit, because when done well they will greatly strengthen the valuation that a third party might be willing to pay you for your business.

Here is a short but effective whitepaper to help facilitate a dialog with your leadership team about where there may be productivity opportunities within your company. As you think about strengthening your business margins today and over the long term and the positive impact this could have on your future exit event, begin today leveraging what productivity initiatives can do for your business. (read whitepaper)

Address potential future due diligence headaches well before attempting to exit

A step we take with our clients, as we guide them on their journey to experiencing a euphoric exit event one day, is to conduct a due diligence dress rehearsal at least one year prior to beginning the sale process. There are common challenges that arise during any due diligence process as an acquirer kicks the tires of a company they are looking to buy, and all can be either avoided or better managed to reduce the stress on you, the seller.

One such challenge that commonly arises in due diligence by an acquirer is your company’s handling of State income and sales tax reporting for the various States that you might conduct business in. And where it can get gray is what is the definition of “conducting” business and does it expose you not just to paying income tax in that State but potentially sales tax as well. An acquirer wants to understand this because if it’s found that there is an issue and any State or States challenge you, it could lead to a future risk or liability to the acquirer under their ownership.

An example of this is let’s say your company sells a product to a business in another State, such as a distributor or a service type partner. This of course opens you to paying an income tax in that State but how about having to pay a sales tax? State tax authorities look to see what they call a “nexus” or connection between your company and their State tax paying requirements. Generally, the income tax you owe is clear but what can be gray relates to how your company is handling the sales tax.

A good due diligence dress rehearsal will find such potential hangups that could concern a potential acquirer. Use time as a friend today to find such potential hangups and address them so they don’t bog down your ultimate due diligence process. If you’re thinking about exiting in the next 1-2 years, think about conducting a due diligence dress rehearsal. We can help by visiting our Business Diagnostics page on our website where we have a helpful tool to get you thinking about successfully preparing for due diligence. (Due Diligence Dress Rehearsal Diagnostic)

To achieve your euphoric future exit event, know the order for engaging advisors

We find that too often private business owners don’t know when the optimal time is for engaging with M&A professionals to guide them in selling their company to a third party. It surprises many to hear the order of priority in establishing these M&A partnerships. Here is what we recommend to private owners thinking of selling their business:

In advance of selling your company, here are the professionals we suggest having on your team to greatly enable getting you to a successful, even euphoric exit event:

• Exit planning advisor – at least a year in advance, even better 2 to 3 years prior, engage an advisor to help guide you through the entire exit preparation process (or as we call it, the exit optimization process). There are many aspects to preparing your company for an optimal exit and this advisor is the first to engage as they are experienced to take away your uncertainty as to what preparation steps you should be taking to lead to your euphoric exit event. This advisor will also help you thru the process of when to engage the following set of advisors to have on your exit optimization team.
• Tax planning advisor – at least a year prior to selling your business, you’ll want to ensure you have an optimal tax efficient structure in place (business and personal) to help minimize the federal and state taxes you’ll owe on the sale of your business. A tax advisor will tell you that they need at least a year in order to give you the greatest number of options for getting a tax efficient structure in place. And depending on your personal situation, in addition to tax advisory there maybe the need for engaging with an Estate Planning advisor and they too should be engaged at least a year prior to starting the exit process.
• M&A lawyer – next in priority of building your exit team is your M&A lawyer and this is approximately 6 months prior to beginning the sale process that you want to be interviewing for your M&A legal partner. Not your business lawyer, but your M&A seasoned legal partner. You’re not just hiring a lawyer to help you get all the legal documents in place, you’re looking for a seasoned M&A lawyer that keeps you from getting sued post-closing of the transaction. Any M&A lawyer can get the documents you need in place for a deal to close, but what you want is the M&A partner that is highly experienced to ensure that all the transaction related documents are negotiated and drafted to keep you from post-closing lawsuits that can commonly arise in M&A transactions.
• Investment Banker/Business Broker – also about 6 months prior to beginning a formal sale process, you’ll want to be interviewing for your partner who in essence will run the auction process for your business. A seasoned broker (generally for smaller businesses) or Investment Banker (for businesses with more size) is licensed to represent your company in the sale process. This partner will guide you through the process of building your Confidential Memorandum that will be used to solicit interest from potential acquirers and will manage the entire process through to receiving offers. One of the reasons you want your M&A lawyer in place ahead of engaging your banker/broker is engaging them is going to require you signing an engagement agreement with them. You don’t want to sign these unless you have your M&A lawyer on your team first to review and negotiate your banker/broker engagement agreement.

Getting to a euphoric exit event requires having a solid team of seasoned M&A professionals around you. You can avoid making deal mistakes by engaging with professionals that have done many deals and know what pitfalls to help you avoid. These professionals can help you by making the deal process less stressful and ultimately have a much greater likelihood of success.

Build alignment and increase chances of a future euphoric exit event

Building a company to one day achieve a euphoric exit event for owners is tough enough when all owners are aligned, close to impossible when lacking alignment. We meet with many company co-owners and a common issue we come across is they are struggling in getting alignment around important near-term decisions. These decisions might relate to areas such as making investments in systems, equipment or hiring of key people. When we come across this with co-owners, our message is that in most cases the reason they are struggling with these important near-term decisions is they lack alignment around what the longer term plan is for the business. Lack of alignment around what the end game is for owners with their business will absolutely lead to disagreements related to near-term decisions the ownership team needs to make.

If you find yourself in this situation of regular disagreements with your co-owners, ask yourself are we aligned first about the long term? If not, this is the place to start to build alignment and doing so will make the near-term decisions much easier. And, you’ll be on your way to accelerating the overall shareholder value of your business which will increase the likelihood of a future euphoric exit event for all.

Ensure your business is ready for this key due diligence step

Company owners often think of due diligence as a time for the lawyers from the acquirer to probe your business. Although this is certainly part of the exit process, it’s not all of it. What surprises the seller often is when they hear their potential acquirer is requiring to speak to a variety of the selling company’s customers ahead of the transaction officially closing. Ask yourself this question, when I sell my business one day, am I highly confident that I will be able to present a good cross section of my customers that I know will speak highly of my company?

In many transactions, acquirers like to speak to customers of the selling company anywhere from 2 to 10 weeks prior to the official closing of the transaction. The acquirer prefers doing these as early as possible in the due diligence process but as the seller, you will want these voice of the customer calls to be made much closer to the final transaction closing date. The timing of when these calls will be conducted is generally a deal negotiating point between acquirer and seller.

At least 1-2 years prior to selling your business, you’ll want to give thought as to who you will one day present to the acquirer for conducting their voice of the customer diligence work. Have you established a strong relationship with customers so as to give you the confidence they will speak highly of your company when the acquirer speaks with them? The acquirer will ask your customer questions like; why do you select this company to do business with? How is this company better than alternatives you have available? Do your plans include continuing to purchase from this company going forward? Where would you like to see the company improve or possibly expand their products/services?

The bottom line is this. Preparing for your future euphoric exit event takes years to do properly as there are many facets to the preparation. One of these relates to establishing a strong working rapport with a cross section of your customers so that when exit due diligence time arrives, you’ll be confident in your preparation for this key step. Being ill-prepared for this step could be a reason they decide to back away from the transaction or try and negotiate a lower valuation…both bad outcomes but with the right exit preparation planning, can be easily avoided.

Avoid the disappointment many sellers experience

You dream of one day selling your company. Part of that dream is what it will mean to you in terms of financial independence. Ask yourself, then why is it study after study reports that the vast majority of private company owners that sell their company aren’t happy with the outcome?

There are several reasons for this and our many prior blog posts identify them. But one particular reason is as the final date approaches for selling the company, the seller starts to see specifically what the Net proceeds are going to be that they will receive as a result of the sale and they are negatively surprised by the amount being much lower than they dreamed of.

You can avoid this typical surprise and disappointment by well in advance of starting the exit process developing your Gross to Net Proceeds Model. Here are some of the key elements you will have in your specific model:

Gross Proceeds – this is the amount you hope to receive from a third party. Your model can be built to allow you to change this to various scenarios.

Minus: (these are the costs/dollars that will be taken out of the Gross Proceeds to result in your Net)

• Deal Costs – costs such as hiring an investment banker to represent you in the sale, hiring an M&A attorney and getting transaction help from your CPA or other advisors
• Loan/Debt Paydown – acquirers generally won’t assume debt you have on your business. Typical agreement language will say the acquirer is buying your company “on a debt free basis”. So any debt on your business will be taken from your gross proceeds.
• Co-owner/Shareholder Payments – if you have co-owners or shareholders, what amount of the proceeds from the transaction will go directly to them
• Employee Incentives – many private company owners have plans to reward all or some of their employees upon the sale of their company. This amount needs to be subtracted from the gross proceeds you will receive
• Taxes – calculating your Federal and State tax liability can be a meaningful reduction to the net amount you will personally receive

Every company sale is unique but the items above are the most common ones every business owner will experience. Contact us to help build your specific Gross to Net Proceeds Model or contact your CPA and engage their help. Don’t wait until you’re in the middle of a transaction with a third party only to find out you’re not going to be happy with the net proceeds you will personally enjoy. You want to be euphoric one day from the sale of your company, take this important step early on in your exit process.

Don't just prepare to sell your business one day, prepare to optimize it

Studies show that the majority of business owners that sell their company aren’t ultimately happy with the outcome. What is the primary reason for this? The answer most often is the owners had the wrong mindset related to what exit preparation means.

Our guidance to clients desiring to one day be euphoric from the sale of their business is to think exit optimization. Here is a great short video (Exit Optimization Video) to help you see the better pathway to your optimized, future euphoric exit event.

An important planning dimension to selling your business

If you’re thinking of one day selling your business to a third party, ask yourself this question. Am I currently working a plan that will ensure that in addition to my company being ready, I will also be personally ready?

Business owners and CEO’s often do most of their thinking related to their company exit readiness but where their planning often falls short relates to their personal readiness. Their personal readiness means personal financial readiness and their personal mental state readiness to separate from their business and pursue something else in their life.

Watch this short video (Ownership Exit Triangle) that will help you give thought to what we call the Ownership Exit Triangle. This video will facilitate your thinking around a critical dimension of effective exit planning.

Be more than satisfied with your future exit, be euphoric

Study after study shows that the majority of private company business owners that are fortunate enough to sell their company to a third party aren’t happy with the outcome. Put yourself in the elite group of owners that are euphoric with their exit event.  Here is a short video (achieving your euphoric exit) by Larry O’Toole designed to help business owners and CEO’s think about the formula for building company valuation to help make you euphoric upon your exit event. Use time as a friend and start ensuring your pathway to euphoria one day.

Know what scale means for your future exit event

We meet with many private business owners on a regular basis to discuss their future exit options. A common part of this dialog is our sharing what qualities their company should possess in order to attract the greatest amount of interest from third parties one day and the greatest valuation. Each industry has uniqueness in this regard but one quality the vast majority of acquirers find attractive is your company having scale.

Company scale relates to the size of your business revenue and profit. Acquirers know that buying a business is hard work so to make this hard work worthwhile, they like there to be some level of minimum size, or scale, to the business. Are there exceptions to this? Certainly there are, but they are the exception not the norm. The norm is acquirers know it’s just as difficult (and sometimes more difficult) buying a $2M annual revenue company than it is to buy one generating $20M of revenues. At the end of this hard work, they’d much rather be owning and working with the scale of that $20M company than the significantly smaller one. And, acquirers will very often reward the scale by applying a higher exit multiple to the transaction. As an example, the $2M revenue company might receive a 4x exit multiple (4x your company’s prior 12 months of EBITDA profit). But the very similar in nature but much larger $20M revenue business will be rewarded for their scale with perhaps a 6x exit multiple. Both companies serve in the same industry, serve similar customers, offer similar products/services but the exit multiple applied by the acquirer will be different simply rewarding the larger financial performance scale.

Each industry has uniqueness in terms of what scale means, give us a call (949.874.0787) and we can provide more industry specific guidance. Learn today what scale means in your industry and use time as a friend to build toward this scale so that you will be euphoric when your company sale event occurs one day.

Consider how evolving technologies could impact your future company sale

When thinking about how to get an acquirer one day to make you euphoric by paying a premium to buy your business, a key factor to think about years in advance relates to de-risking your business.

Acquirers take multiple factors into consideration when placing a value on your business. One of these factors relates to what risk they perceive there to be in owning it.  These days, a key area of risk an acquirer considers relates to how evolving technologies might change your industry and its potential impact on your company. Watch Larry O’Toole in this short video as he discusses technological trends and the potential to protect and grow your business valuation.

Build your team's decision making muscle, build long term value

Every company’s value is in essence built through the culmination of all the decisions made by you and your team up to any given point. Therefore, the better you and your team are at making decisions, generally the greater value, or company worth, that you’ve created.

Why is it then that every company isn’t world class at making efficient, effective decisions? You’d think building a strong decision-making muscle would be an ongoing focus at every business. Sit with the key members of your leadership team and ask this question – “how good are we at making important business decisions every day? Are we efficient and effective in making mostly good decisions?” You might find an interesting and productive discussion will follow. Here are some additional questions around decision-making:

• What degree of empowerment do we give key managers around the company to make decisions on their own?
• Do we ever go back and evaluate key business decisions we’ve made to learn what we did that may have made it a good process and ultimate decision and perhaps what didn’t?
• Would our customers say that the employees they interface with at our company are empowered to make certain decisions directly and quickly or will customers say we are slow in getting them decisions on even basic items and they find this frustrating?
• Does our organization structure enable and support efficient and effective decision making or is it a disabler to time efficient and good decision making?
• When bigger decisions need to be made, do we have an effective, repeatable process we work through so we don’t reinvent the wheel each time we need to make an important decision?

Here is a great template to have as part of your company decision-making muscle, especially for the bigger more important decisions that need to be made (Decision Making Template). Each time you have an important decision to make, run through this template and let it facilitate productive dialog with your team. Building your decision-making muscle will help build long term company net worth, so begin enhancing that muscle today.

Your employees and their mindset is key

A frequent question we get from new clients that have engaged our help on their business exit planning journey is, “I don’t want my team to know I’m thinking about ever selling my company in the future so how do I get them helping me take preparation steps without the risk of them worrying about me possibly selling?”

A very valid question that we address in this way. Look at your team in two groups – the first is the very senior members of your leadership team and although they don’t need to be brought in to the “tent” early on in your exit preparation planning, they are the first group that will be brought in one day when the timing is right. The second group of employees are all other members of your team that we will help determine whether they are brought in just prior to an exit event or whether it might wait until a transaction is about to or has happened. For both groups, even without discussing any plans the owner has about thinking of selling one day, there are steps that can be taken to get employees in the right mindset of supporting your longer range exit preparation plans:

• Ensure each department is supervised by a manager that is connected directly to your strategic plan. Help each supervisor understand how their role and their team’s role fit in to the bigger picture of progress you’re looking to make with your company. Do this by discussing key elements of your strategic plan in terms of what you’re looking to improve and build at your company and discuss with them how their department fits in to help drive this. Also discuss specific actions and related key performance metrics that you want them managing to within their department so together you can see progress versus just motion.
• Help your leadership team, and all team members of your company, see the bridge between what your company does and what value this brings to your customers. Far too many employees work at companies where they don’t fully understand or appreciate the benefit your end customer derives from working with your company. More and more employees today want to see that their company is delivering something of value to the market (and even society as a whole) and as the owner/CEO, it’s your responsibility to help them know what this is. If you want your employees caring about what your business does and you want them coming up consistently with ideas for improvement, then improve their engagement by helping them understand and even get excited about what value your company brings to the market.

These two steps can help you connect your team to your exit preparations and associated strategic plan without having to raise the topic of selling. Too many employees are just doing a job without any idea of how it connects to the bigger picture of what a company is trying to achieve, never mind what value customers derive. Connect these dots and you’re well on your way to having a team with a value building mindset and one that helps you build long term company net worth. And speaking of mindset, here is a thought provoking video we published to help owners with their exit preparation mindset (Exit Planning Mindset - Growing Company Worth)

Cybersecurity planning is an important preparation step

In prior blog posts we discuss third party due diligence and preparedness steps you’ll need to take with your business to be able to successfully withstand the “probe” that your company might one day undergo. Too often company owners believe the tough decision is that of deciding to sell their business…in reality there is an equally important question and that is can your company withstand the due diligence activity of a third party as they probe your business to determine what value to place on it.

These days, due diligence isn’t getting any easier as a potential acquirer must look deeply into your company to determine what opportunities and risks relate to owning it. One such risk these days relates to your company’s cybersecurity readiness. Here are great questions to think about now in this area because they are questions you will likely receive one day from a potential acquirer:

• Have you ever had a third-party IT company conduct penetration testing of your company network and systems? Do you do this periodically to identify any gaps in protection protocols?
• Do you ensure full safeguarding of employee (personal information) and customer data, such as credit card information?
• Do you know what customer and vendor agreements you’ve signed that require you to notify them if a breach occurs and what the timeframe is for notifying them?
• Do you train new employees on the basics of cybersecurity protection at your company?
• Do you have a cybersecurity recovery plan should your company systems/network be breached?
• Have you investigated having cybersecurity insurance and are you clear on what it specifically covers?

Bottom line is this – cybersecurity was barely on any third party due diligence list a decade ago. Today, it’s on every acquirer’s due diligence checklist. Use time as a friend now and ensure you have a protection plan in place. Doing so can protect the worth of your company today and help support the future worth that an acquirer might see in acquiring your business.

Effective segmentation can grow revenue and future company worth

When the day arrives that you want to sell your business to a third party, an important question you will receive pertains to which customer segments you serve today, don’t serve today and which ones could be served going forward as a growth opportunity for them by owning your company. Having the answer, backed up your sales data, could be a key driver to the valuation an acquirer might place on your business. Here are a few questions to discuss with your team today on this important topic:

• Have we identified the various customer segments that exist in our industry today
• Are the customer segments growing at different rates within our industry….which are growing, declining or forecasted to be flat in the years ahead
• Are we focusing our sales and marketing resources on the best growth segments
• Do we see new customer segments emerging that we could consider serving
• Do we know our existing annual revenues by each of the segments we are serving
• Do we know our gross margins for each customer segment we serve and which are more profitable than others
• Which segments don’t we serve and is this by intention?
• Are there underserved or unserved customer segments today that we could serve in the future as a growth opportunity

Too often business executives lump all customers together into one group. This can work if your industry only has a single customer segment but this is extremely rare. The vast majority of industries have multiple customer segments and it’s strategically valuable to know very clearly which ones you serve, could serve more, could serve in the future and those that you deem undesirable to ever serve. At time of your future exit event, an acquirer is going to want to fully understand your customer segmentation especially for purposes of knowing what growth potential is remaining for your business. Start building your company worth today by building your customer segmentation understanding and resource deployment plan. You’ll be glad one day that you used time as a friend now in building this important muscle for your company.

Know the formula for achieving your future euphoric exit event

Too many private business owners believe the formula for achieving a euphoric outcome from the sale of their company one day is to focus on building their revenues and profits. Although this is a good start, realize this is the actual formula; Euphoric Outcome = 20% company tangibles + 80% company intangibles.

The tangibles of your business are the financial statements; P&L, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow statement and when the day arrives you want to sell, an acquirer is going to place 20% of their valuation of your company on these tangibles. The 80% of their valuation is going to be on your intangibles, things like;

• No reliance on you as the owner…it can operate successfully without you going forward
• Quality of revenue from a cross-section of customers versus a concentration on just a few
• A strong team and culture that can continue the success of the business
• Predictable revenue streams that the acquirer can enjoy

Too many private company owners believe the formula for receiving a great payout from an acquirer is presenting a business with great revenue and profit. This is the ante into the exit game. The majority of the valuation is going to be from your intangibles, the things that will enable the acquirer to experience success going forward under their ownership. As you build your business, of course building year over year financial performance is important to one day selling your business. But know that the acquirer is going to really take a close look at the intangibles of your business to determine if it’s worth paying a premium. Use time as a friend to build these intangibles and increase the likelihood of one day achieving your euphoric exit event.

To help you on this journey, visit our video channel with actionable insights on building toward your future euphoric exit event. (Euphoric Exit Event Planning)

It's not about revenue and profit, it's about building company value

Too often business executives think in terms of driving revenue and profit growth but often absent in their thinking is what does this growth mean to building company value, or company net worth?

I can present two companies, both with equal revenue and profit and yet one be worth much more at time of exit in the eyes of acquirer.  The difference is the “intangibles” in the business versus the tangibles seen in the financial statements.

As you make daily, weekly and monthly decisions for your company, think about these decisions as they relate to building worth, not just revenue and profit. Think about things like:

• Are we serving high quality customers, those allowing us to generate higher gross margins
• Do we have products/services and a business model that allow us to generate more predictable revenue streams than pure transaction revenues only
• Is our product/service offering continuing to evolve in a way that we can present ourselves with unique capabilities in the market versus competition
• When we sign customer and vendor contracts, are they inclusive of business terms favorable for our business
• Are we building a management team that a future acquirer will find attractive for adding to their team

Questions like these relate to the intangibles in your company versus the tangibles seen in your financial statements. Realize the basis of the majority of the valuation a future acquirer will place on your business is heavily related to these intangibles. Certainly, great financial performance is the ante into the game of a successful exit to a third party, but to achieve a euphoric above market valuation, is going to require you to check the boxes of the intangibles. Shift your thinking to this business exit strategy today and you’ll be well on your way to creating your future euphoric exit event.

Increase your company valuation by managing business risk

When the day comes that you present your company to a third party for them to consider buying, they will look for two things. The first is how will acquiring your business enable their own. Second, what risk would there be in acquiring your company.

You will want to use time as a friend starting now to prepare your business in a way that helps you present it one day to third parties so that they see acceptable risks in buying it. As we wear the glasses of future acquirer’s for our clients, here is a great template we use to help them think through what kind of risk might be seen in their company. (Business Risk Assessment Template)

Start today on your journey to a future euphoric outcome from the sale of your business. Wear the glasses of a future acquirer today and determine where they might see risk in your business and begin taking steps to reduce or eliminate that risk.

Yosemite Business Diagnostics https://youtu.be/cPJyvdGlUPs can enable you

Periodically it’s very enabling to find new ways to build company value, or worth, by having an outside set of eyes review your business. Many owners and CEOs prefer avoiding the cost and confidentiality concerns associated with this outside assessment. This is why we created Yosemite Business Diagnostics.

We offer three great ways to privately diagnose your business without leaving your office. Visit our Youtube channel listed above to learn more or our website Yosemite Associates | Tools Diagnostics to leverage these tools and the insightful diagnosis it will provide.

Revenue questions to ask today to help build company exit valuation for tomorrow

When the day comes you want to sell your business, the potential acquirer is going to evaluate the future growth potential of your company. During their due diligence probe, they will look to see how effective your company has been historically at making and achieving its revenue projections.

Too often business owners and CEOs set a new year revenue target but don’t truly think it through strategically. So achieving the target becomes hit or miss and may be more related to luck than true strategic deployment of sales resources. To facilitate productive team dialog now, here are great questions to discuss with your team and bring strategic thought to your new year revenue target:

• How will we calendarize, by month and by quarter, our full year revenue target? It’s one thing to project a full year revenue target but when calendarized over the 12 months, you may then view the target very differently. Look at prior years calendarization and ask yourself will this repeat in the new year, or will you want to make strategic sales deployment changes to bring about a change if you don’t like the current calendarization you’ve been experiencing.
  • Also ask - does our product or service fulfillment team understand this calendarization because they will need to know if there are specific months and/or quarters where the workload will require them to be prepared differently? Projected slow months may require prior material/labor adjustments and higher projected revenue months may require early resource planning.
• What percentage of our revenues will come from Existing customers? From New customers?
  • Do we have visibility/access to the number of potential new customers we will need to achieve our New customer revenue growth or do we need to first invest time in finding these new customers which means our revenue from them may come further down the road?
• How will our revenues come in by product or service we provide? Will all have the same level of growth or will they perform differently and how will this impact our consolidated revenue target?
• Are we tracking each month the number of sales calls, sales proposals, site click throughs, etc. that we will need to support achieving our revenue target?
  • What “leading” activities do we need to be taking that will ultimately lead to achieving the “lagging” indicator of hitting our revenue target. (i.e.: we need to make 50 sales calls per week (leading indicator) which we project will lead to 10 requests for proposals (leading indicator) which we project will lead to 2 new orders each week (lagging indicator). Or we need to place 3 new banner ads per week (leading indicator) projecting this will lead to 5,000 click throughs (leading indicator) and will lead to 200 new orders per week (lagging indicator).
• What factor will the economy have on our revenue projection in the new year. Will it be a headwind or a tailwind versus what we experienced last year?
  • Will all of our customers be equally impacted by the economy or will some be affected differently?
  • How about our products or services, will they be impacted equally in the economy or should we adjust some to grow less and others more and therefore what is the consolidated result on your full year revenue target?

As you return from the holiday break, huddle with your team and use these questions to facilitate productive dialog. You asking these strategic questions will help build their strategic thinking muscle as well and as you do this over time, the planning muscle of your overall organization will improve. This muscle could pay you great dividends when your exit day arrives as the acquirer will be impressed by your company having this planning capability, especially if they see the positive results in your financial statements.