This Week@Work I’ve had a number of conversations about business valuations, and how to design your business so that you can generate income AND deepen value for a premium valuation for exit. If you think, plan and act both in the present and future, you can have your cake and eat it.
If you’re struggling to reach your customers, to tell them about your product or service, you’re probably focussing on the wrong issue.
First, you need to understand precisely what problem you solve… for who… and how you do that, consistently… which will enable you to figure out how best to reach them so that your message lands.
This Week@Work my meetings with long-established business owners have left me concerned about their runway to an exit.
They have spent their careers focused on operational issues to generate income to sustain the business. Only now are they realising they should have been focused on growth and capital value to secure a profitable exit. W
hat are you spending your time on?.
When you sell, what is it that you sell? Is it a product, a service, an experience that solves a problem? Or is it a relationship? In a world where we are all selling and getting sold to constantly, building a relationship will help you stand out.
This Week@Work I’ve had the honour of learning about some of the UK’s best Scale Up businesses as I’m a judge for the Business Leader Scale UP awards.
It’s clear which businesses are getting it right and what they are doing right. Watch to see what makes a business genuinely scalable.
This week@work I met with a frustrated, established business owner who is looking to sell his business in the next 5 years. As part of his exit strategy he ramped up revenues to appeal to a buyer, but his success has put him squarely in ‘No Man’s Land’: Too big for private buyers to afford and too small for listed entities to be interested in.
It’s another warning to start with the end in mind so you can build your business for the right buyer.
This week@work I met with group of business owners who are deeply passionate about their business and it got me thinking about the difference between purpose and intent.
As a business owner the idealism of our purpose drives us to continue to invest in our businesses day after day after day. But it’s the pragmatism of our intent that is as important if we are to leave a legacy, and to monetise those years of investment, sacrifice and risk.
Watch as I share their story to illustrate the difference between the two
This week at work, I met with a group of brilliant engineers who undoubtedly offer a highly specialized solution. It’s something no one else can do at this stage and they believe that is enough to drive their growth. It made me ask whether these engineers are building a business, or if they are just creating a job for themselves. The difference is profound.
Watch as I address what’s missing if all you have is a brilliant product or service.
There are 2 elements that go into valuation: The first involves the 5 technical levers of valuation which can be built into your business, and they make up around 60%, the other 40% is all about how you strategically exit your business.
I outline the process in a couple of minutes in the video below, and have created a 5-part series on each of the layers of valuation that goes into more detail on each, you can find those here.
As a business owner, there are 6 different jobs that you should do at different stages of your career, to maximise your business’s potential and monetise your years of hard work and sacrifice with a rewarding exit. The key? You have to do things differently at each stage.
