Use time as a friend to optimize the future sale of your business
In my career, I’ve seen first-hand the difference between successful and unsuccessful exits for private business owners. There are several factors that each share and a primary one we see for those that experienced an unsuccessful one is they lacked alignment early on with the key people around them.
Here are some great questions to think about now to ensure you are using time as a friend to build and maintain the alignment needed to one day increase your likelihood of experiencing a successful exit:
- Is ownership/leadership of our company aligned around what "good looks like" one day for our business - what are we looking to get out of it?
- Are we effectively discussing our future exit options, the pros and cons of each and which one(s) we want to get aligned around to work toward achieving?
- Have we openly discussed, and are we aligned, on what our goals are for the next 1, 3, 5 or more years?
- For the year ahead at a minimum, is ownership/leadership aligned around the primary KPI’s (key performance indicators) we should be working toward achieving?
- Have we established a means for monthly/quarterly reviewing our business performance and progress so that we are aligned in-regards to how we will monitor and manage our business?
- Is ownership aligned with their key family members and spouses who may be impacted one day from the sale of the business and openly discussing now what a future sale might look like?
Don’t let years go by and then try to sell your business only to find out that lack of alignment in key areas, with key people was missing. You don’t want regrets when the day arrives that you look to sell your company. You want to be euphoric. Getting there starts today with fresh, new dialog with the key people around you to get the needed alignment to grow the worth of your company.
