You-proofing Your Business
Making your business less dependent on you has a number of benefits: you can scale your company more quickly if you’re not acting as a bottleneck; you get more time to enjoy life outside of your business; and a business less dependent on its owner is much more valuable to an acquirer. Pulling yourself out…
Read More3 Ways To Make Your Company More Valuable Than Your Industry Peers
Have you ever wondered what determines the value of your business? Perhaps you’ve heard an industry rule of thumb and assumed that your company will be worth about the same as a similar size company in your industry. However, when we take a look at the data provided by The Value Builder System™, we’ve found…
Read MoreThinking Vs. Doing: The Owner’s Dilemma
There’s a steady breeze from the northwest, which cools the warm Caribbean afternoon. Framed between a palm tree and the turquoise water, you notice a man reading. He appears to be working, which seems strange given his appearance: shaggy blonde hair, linen shirt, surf shorts and flip-flops. You squint and realize the man is Richard…
Read More3 Surprising Reasons To Offer A Subscription
You can now buy a subscription for everything from dog treats to razor blades. Music subscription services are booming as our appetite to buy tracks is replaced by our willingness to rent access to them. Starbucks now even offers coffee on subscription. Why are so many companies leveraging the subscription business model? The obvious reason…
Read MoreThe Surprising Secret To A Big Exit
We get to see a lot of company founders who are contemplating an exit. Some of our customers get lucky early in life, but in the vast majority of examples where a founder is getting a seven- or eight-figure offer, it is not their first rodeo. In fact, most owners have had multiple failures and…
Read MoreWhy Now Is The Riskiest Time To Own Your Business
Most people think of starting a business as risky, but unless you invest a significant amount of start-up cash in your venture, you’re not really risking much other than your time. That changes if you’re lucky enough to get your business off the ground. As your company grows, you start to risk more and more…
Read More5 Lessons From Home Depot’s Acquisition of Blinds.com
Jay Steinfeld built Blinds.com into a $100 million e-tailer before selling out to Home Depot. Here are five things that made it a spectacular exit. Win The Make vs. Buy Battle Companies like Home Depot have a “make or buy” decision when they see a competitor winning market share. They can opt to buy the…
Read MoreHave You Discovered Your Recurring Revenue Model?
When it comes to the value of your business, what happened in the past is much less important than what is likely to happen in the future. One of the most important ways you can shape the future of your business is to create some recurring revenue. Recurring revenue comes from those magical sales you…
Read MoreAround the Web: A Month in Summary
A recent article posted on PR Newswire entitled “Business owners’ love of work may hinder succession planning” explains the parallels between the number of business owners with no plans to retire and the lack of succession planning. In a recent poll, over 70% of business owners said they are not planning to retire, don’t know…
Read MoreWhen Selling Your Business, Play to Win
If you are an independent business owner, you are most likely also an independent business seller–if not now, you will be somewhere down the road. The Small Business Administration reports that three to five years is a long enough stretch for many business owners and that one in every three plans to sell, many of…
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