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Business Owners

Does the value of your business reflect your time and investment?

Ownership Challenges

Growth Stage

1. Stalled Growth & No Sales Engine

As the owner, have you transferred your sales responsibilities or are you still selling?
Are you driving sales that add or detract from your most profitable and repeatable revenue?
Have you experienced the differences between good and bad growth?
Are you aware of the growth plateaus?
Is there more work to be done operationally before considering growth?
Is there more work to be done strategically before considering growth?
Are you in tune with the relationship between sales and the rest of the business?
Would it be wiser to grow sales with existing personnel, new hires, or outsourced sales?
Are you comfortable evaluating sales vendors?
Have you defined and prioritized your sales targets?
Are you happy with a viable lifestyle business that does not need to grow further?

2. No Clear & Credible Differentiators

Do you invest in marketing or is new business mostly by referral or opportunistic?
What have you tried in the past and what were the results?
Are you able to stand out? Is your uniqueness clear?
Do your differentiators matter to customers?
Do your differentiators add value to your business?
Do your differentiators make your business more predictable?
Do you have an ideal customer profile?
Is that customer profile the same as your competitors' ideal customer profiles?
Can your differentiators be summed up in an elevator pitch?
Does marketing lead with your capabilities, or the customers' problems?
Do your differentiators make it easy for others to refer your company?

3. Lack of Dependable Cash & Cash Reserves

Do you have a system to contain expenditures?
Do you have a system of bank account allocation that helps organize, protect and grow cash?
Do you have a group of metrics around cash?
Do you understand the place that cash has on the hierarchy of metrics?

4. Hiring & Retention Challenges

Do you know how happy your employees are?
Can you measure it?
Do you know if they see a future at your company?
Are you aware of their career interests and aspirations?
Do you know their full set of skills?
Are you open to making your employees happier and your business more enjoyable?
Do you know the best ways to establish a valuable culture?
Do you have a way to attract great employees?
What do you do to keep them?

5. Plenty of Ideas & No Priorities

Do you filter and prioritize ideas?
If so, how? Do you have sufficient sounding boards for your ideas?
Do you know how to assess risk?
Do you know how an idea will impact the value of your business?
What are the main barriers to implementing the best ideas: time, money, skills, uncertainty?

6. Big Opportunity - Should I Go For It?

Do you have a process to make go-no go decisions?
Who else is involved in this process?
Do you know where to get the data to support these decisions?
Are high impact activities being delayed?
Are delays due to uncertainty about ROI or because other items are more urgent?
Are high impact activities delayed due to a lack of cash, experience, or skills?
Do you assess progress during an initiative and debrief afterwards?

7. Overworked

Have you inventoried all your activities?
Do you spend most of your time on firefighting, daily operations, or thinking strategically?
Are you aware of opportunities to automate?
Do your employees also work long hours?
Are you comfortable delegating?
Are you able to let go after work?
Are you able to let go on vacation?

8. Need Help With Accounting & Financials

Do you know your working capital requirements?
Do you know the relationship between working capital and the value of your business?
Have you leaned into and listed all of the potential risks to your business?
Do you have the proper margin of safety?
Do you have an aversion to financial management or wish you could master finances simply?

9. Lacking a Support Network

Who are your most trusted advisors?
Do you belong to industry associations?
Do you belong to mastermind groups?
Do you have a sounding board for important decisions?
Do you have too little time or interest to follow-up after industry events or mastermind meetings?
Are you being held accountable in a way that works for you?

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Endgame Planning

1. Do I Really Need an Endgame?

How can you protect yourself as you build a valuable company?
How does your risk change the larger you get?
Do you know your number - the number you need to hit before you can walk away?
Where will the proceeds go after you exit?
What is your life plan after you exit?
Without an endgame, are you running the company with maximum clarity and purpose?

2. How do I Become Valuable to a Strategic Acquirer?

Do strategic companies contact you?
Can you build a business to attract a company that will pay more?
Would defining this ideal company help drive your growth strategy?
Besides competitors, who else would be strategic?
How is your company more attractive to strategic companies than their other targets?
What do you need to do to prepare for the ideal acquirer?
How long will this preparation take?

3. When is the Best Time to Exit?

Do you have views about the current economy?
Will the economy improve or decline?
Do you consider presidential elections when you consider your exit timeline?
Will your timeline be more heavily influenced by business or personal goals?
Is your timeline affected by your lease?
Do you feel it is better to exit before, during, or after a good growth run?

4. Is My Business Valuable?

Have you seen industry data on business value?
Does your CPA have an opinion of the value of your business?
Have you heard from business owners who have exited?
Do you trust this information?
Have interested parties contacted you and floated a value?
Has anyone looked at your business in depth to assess its value?

5. How Long Does it Take to Prepare, Transition & Exit?

Have you thought about your ideal transition?
Do you know how many years of consistent financials and documentation are needed?
Do you know the impact of your financial trend (growing, flat, or declining) on the exit price?
Do you have an idea of how long a new owner would want you around?
At what age would you like to be completely out of this business?

6. What Information Do I Need to Prepare and Organize?

Have you had a consistent tax preparation service?
Do you use an outside bookkeeper?
Can you access financials within days after a month ends?
Have you ever filed amended tax returns?
Do you know your working capital?
Does your accountant provide balance sheets on a regular basis?
What accounting software do you use?
Do you have operations manuals, employee manuals, product guides, service guides, contracts, and agreements?
Are they current, centrally located or easy to obtain?
Would you be able to share business credit card statements if asked?
Do you have a business plan or projections?
Is there growth potential that you have not pursued?
If so, do you have research or have you taken steps to validate this potential?
Do you have a list of physical assets and inventory that you keep current?
Do you have lease history including addendums and amendments?
Do you have sales reports by customer, geography, industry, revenue, contract type, etc.?
Do you have an employee roster with dates, rates and job descriptions?

7. What is My Role in a Transition?

Would you prefer to stay with the new owner or leave soon after you train them?
If you stay, would you prefer to be an employee or consultant?
Have you considered a fair pay rate?
Have you considered which scenario is most valuable to a new owner?
What do you need to tell a new owner before closing in order to ensure a smooth transition?
Will you be comfortable with a new owner making operational decisions after the sale?
If you own the real estate, will you sell it or would you be a landlord to the new owner?

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3 Steps to Value

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Get the eBookEssential Topics for Valuable MSPs

Business Owners

Does the value of your business reflect your time and investment?

Ownership Challenges

3 Steps to Value

Value Builder Score

You Deserve Support On Your Path to Freedom

Get the eBook
Essential Topics for Valuable MSPs