Excerpt from our online program.  ​Sell Your Business 4 More

​You should be working very hard to build your business into something great and make yourself irrelevant in the process.

The strategy is simple:

1. Have a big vision and, make it worthy of your time and effort. And more importantly your staffs time and effort.
 
2. Bring great people with varied skill sets and experiences onboard. Make sure they speak their mind.

3. Let them do what they do best and are most passionate about. We all have a superpower and at our core we know what it is. This is usually accompanied by a deep desire to unleash it to its' fullest potential.  

4. Create a desirable inclusive atmosphere that great people want to be a part of.

If you succeed, they will thrive and likely take the company much further than you ever could on your own.
   
So what should irrelevant mean to you in the context of selling your company? Right now and for the foreseeable future you will maintain the vision and lead the charge. As you are getting ready to transition, slowly replace your superpowers with others who demonstrate the same abilities and let them take over.  

The same applies to any of your key staff who will be leaving around the time of selling or within a few years. Buyers will interview your employees and they will find out who is staying and who is going. Start training their replacements as well.

At some point you will become redundant, irrelevant and unnecessary to managing and growing the business. You will then have succeeded.  

The business operating without you is a key factor when Buyers are considering purchasing your company. It means they can step in and immediately take over.

It's not easy and requires some real grit on your part. While many day to day functional activities are taken care of by staff there are still top level decisions that always seem to fall into your lap. No this is not by fluke it is by design, your design. The desire to be relevant and important to the process.

There is a reason that some of you have kept your business running at a particular sales level for years. It's not always because opportunities have dried up. Nor is it the new developments within your industry. It's because there is a comfort in working in a particular sized business. You found your comfort zone and staying there is well, more comfortable. Typically an Owner will keep a successful business just under $3 million around $2.6 million in annual sales. Or in many cases under $1 million or under $2 million. You've created what is often referred to as lifestyle business. i.e. your lifestyle

I know it sounds counter intuitive since you spent the last few decades making most of the key decisions, creating and massaging the vision, leading the sales and generally driving the business to its' current success.

It won't be easy to give up the responsibilities and let go. But the Owner who has done this typically finds that among the many factors used by Buyers to make a purchase decision, this one is key.

Put yourself in the Buyers seat. You do the transaction and suddenly you get hit by a bus. Or there is a falling out and you refuse to continue the transition relationship. You don't agree with a change they're making and your instinct is to fight it or worse sabotage the change. If the Buyer is dependent upon one or two people to determine the fate of the business post sale, they're highly unlikely to move forward with a purchase.

You can say it won't happen all you want, but when one is dealing with real money and time invested in the success of a venture they want all the right cards in their hand.

So become irrelevant personally, to the point where you become incredibly desirable as a company. 

Exercise - Task

Step 1 is to be clear on your superpowers. 

Step 2 is to determine who the best replacement might be. Look inside your business and outside.

Step 3 is to identify the current staff with other superpowers the company needs to thrive. And their replacements. Because you never know who will leave or when.

My superpowers and replacements are:

1. Power                                                                     Replacement

2. Power                                                                     Replacement

3. Power                                                                     Replacement

4. Power                                                                     Replacement

Other currently existing superpowers within the company and their replacements are:

1. Power                                                                     Replacement

2. Power                                                                     Replacement

3. Power                                                                     Replacement

4. Power                                                                     Replacement

If you found the above information and exercise of value please visit.
Sell Your Business 4 More

Guide/Coach Eric
416-270-2466
eric@ericgilboord.com

Excerpt from 'Just Tell Me More - Marketing Tips in 10 Minute Chunks'

Lists like this one are usually made up of financial reasons for the failure of a small business. Unfortunately there are also many sales and marketing reasons. Fortunately, there is a positive step that can be taken for each one that will greatly increase your chances for success.

“These actionable tips are the responsibility of everyone who works with you. Make sure they know and understand them.” EG

​1. Face Your Weaknesses. Failure to face up to your weaknesses and a lack of effort to take advantage of your strengths can keep your business in a no-growth mode. Take two pieces of paper and list your company’s strengths on one page and its weaknesses on the other. Note the ways you can make your staff, customers, prospects, and other business associates aware of each of your strengths. On the page of weaknesses, identify steps to correct each problem. Discuss the points with your staff and develop a schedule to address them. No, it’s not really as bad as you think.
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2. Take Action. Talking about the great marketing program you have been developing and following through with it are two very different actions. Implementing the program is the key to marketing success. Plan all you want, but be prepared to act on all the steps you have identified. Don’t be surprised to discover that there are some steps you hadn’t initially considered.

3. Accountability And Responsibility. Understand the difference between accountability and responsibility. Make sure your staff and suppliers recognize that by accepting responsibility, they are accountable to you and to the rest of the company. It is now their job to get the assignment completed.

4. Don’t Play At Business. Don’t play at being in business. It is not a hobby or a pastime. Think about the message you are sending to your staff, suppliers, and customers. A genuine commitment to the customer and to the success of the business will get you through difficult times. It will also pave the way for much more success in the future.
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5. Avoid Ad Hoc Marketing. Struggling from one idea to another without thinking your complete marketing story through will typically end in one failure after another. Prepare a program for the year or at least for a complete season. Build on previous efforts to ensure continuity.

6. Seek Employee Buy In. When your staff does not support your marketing program, you are usually destined for failure. Get them involved early in the planning process and incorporate
their ideas.

7. Appreciate Every Customer. A complete disregard for customers is a sure sign that a business is failing. There is nothing more irritating than walking into a business or past a booth at a trade or consumer show and discovering that the person behind the counter is having a personal telephone conversation or reading the paper. Immediately, you are made to feel like you are interrupting. Customers should be welcomed into your business and greeted with your full attention.

8. Spot Trends. Recognize trends, changes, marketing mistakes, etc. A new trend that is different from your product or service is a terrific opportunity to present something new to your customers. New ideas also refresh your staff.

9. No Egos. If you suffer from the ‘‘not invented here’’ syndrome,fix it right away. Great ideas can come from anywhere and fromanyone. Limiting yourself to ideas created only at your company is viewing life through a very narrow lens. Seeking outside assistance and not listening to it is equally dangerous.

10. You Don’t Know It All. The assumption that all of your ideas are right just because they were ‘‘invented here’’ is also dangerous. You may know your business better than anyone else but you don’t know everything. Seek outside help.

11. Control Sales Staff. Lack of control over sales staff will result in missed opportunities and wasted hours. If your sales reps have little direction or support, they could be selling to whomever they choose. Often, they spend much of their time with existing customers and miss large new opportunities. Develop specific sales plans with your reps and review them regularly.

12. Create Tools. If you don’t create proper sales and marketing tools for your staff, you will make their jobs much more difficult. Arm them with well-thought-out selling tools and train them to use the tools effectively.

13. Keep Tools Impressive. If the sales tools you have are unimpressive, out of date, poorly conceived, or lack strategy or focus, they are damaging to sales opportunities. Work with your staff to prepare useful selling tools. 

14. Prepare A Realistic Budget. Don’t force your marketing group to live with a low or non existent budget. Be realistic about your expectations and provide appropriate funding to increase your chances for success.

15. Don’t Try To Spend Your Way To Success. On the other hand, if you spend too much money on marketing, you may not get value for your investment. Carelessly spending dollars on marketing does not always guarantee sales. You may need to rethink the media and promotional offers that currently make up your marketing program. Introduce a social media program that starts with a real strategy and has the manpower to execute it over a sustained timeframe. At least 2 years and if possible forever.

16. Promote Your Website, Content and Social Media Pages In
Traditional Media And Within Each Other. An important lesson recently learned by many participants in the internet is the need to go outside of it to traditional media. Aside from producing a well thought-out website, content and social media presence, the key to success on the net is to let your target group know where your site, articles and social media pages are located. Add your web address and social media pages to all of your communication materials: business cards, letterhead, invoices, flyers, packaging, and cross promoting between all your social media etc.

17. Answer The Telephone Properly. The habit of not answering the telephone properly or having an uninformed person answering it for you can be damaging. Customers and prospects become frustrated when they can’t get answers to their questions. Train your staff well and equip them with the most up-to-date information. If they shouldn’t be answering the telephone, don’t let them.
​
18. Don’t Lose Orders. They are so hard to get these days how can you even think about losing them. The problems of lost orders or orders not completed on time can be easy to resolve. Create a step-by-step fulfilment process with checking systems to make sure that an order is controlled from beginning to end.

19. Promote Yourself. Some business owners believe that the product or service they offer should be as irresistible to others as it is to them and that customers should just come to them without promotion. Not promoting yourself will only serve to keep your business a secret.

20. Encourage Others To Promote You. It is just as important to encourage others to promote you. If someone else has a clear understanding of what your company does and who your target group is, they can help to promote you. Develop a brief statement that identifies who you are, what you do, who you do it for, and why you are different from competitors. Make sure that anyone who may be representing your company to prospects understands this message.

21. Face Negative Word of Mouth Head-On. Negative word of mouth statements can have a devastating impact on your sales, far beyond one or two unhappy customers. Solve the problem quickly and win customers back. Those customers will be your best salespeople. The internet can make this a huge problem.

22. Use Resources Around You. The failure to use readily available resources can lead to wasted opportunities. Seek out mentors government self-help offices, associations, consultants, internet sites, and libraries. Talk to customers and suppliers and study your competitors.

23. Be Better Than Competitors. Don’t just try to be as good as the competition, be better than them, offer something different, provide better service, etc.

Excerpt from 'Just Tell Me More - Marketing Tips in 10 Minute Chunks'

A sign in the window of a convenience store boldly stated ‘‘No Change.’’ The store had been inundated with people seeking change for the subway or for parking, and the owners felt that it was better to keep them out of their store.

By posting the sign, the owners were effectively driving away new business. If they had taken a more positive approach, they would have seen a great marketing opportunity, not a problem. If the people seeking change were viewed not as a nuisance but as potential customers, a completely different strategy could have been employed to bring in new business.

What the owners could have done was equip themselves with a supply of change and posted a large sign reading ‘‘Change Available.’’ It is likely that many of the people who initially came into the store looking for change could have become regular customers over time.