trendingupdigital.com 800.852.8676
If you've owned your business for longer than ten minutes, chances are you've considered your eventual exit. Whether it was an exceedingly absurd customer demand or a sense of overwhelming accomplishment that inspired such thinking, we all want to leave at some point. Sometimes multiple times a day!
Business ownership is hard. It's long, frustrating hours. It's sleepless nights and non-existent income but for those of us "in the fight"....there is nowhere else we'd rather be! It's the battle that gets us out of bed in the morning. It's the dance. The delicate balance between aggressive and sensitive. The fine line between obnoxious and informative.
Eventually, we will leave our businesses. We will sell them for a profit, or pass them on to a business partner or family member. But what can you be doing in the meantime to set yourself, your team, and your future up for the day you decide to call it quits?
We sat down with Mergers and Acquisitions expert Rich Giles and got a few tips from the expert. Enjoy!
Rich spent his early years as an Air Force Instructor Pilot. From there, he enjoyed a long, successful career in financial services before sharpening his focus on Mergers & Acquisitions. Exit strategies are one of those things that usually get hastily planned when a decision is forced upon a business owner.
Proper planning requires years of strategy and systems development that just can't be rushed, so we asked Rich for his guidance in a few critical areas.
Trending Up: "Once the decision to exit has been made, what are the most important characteristics a company can put on display?"
Rich - "Wow...great question! There are many that should be at the top of that list. Consistent profitability is most important obviously, but there are other factors that can't be ignored.
Is a Proper Management Team in place? Buyers don't want to purchase a business that's going to crumble once the owner departs so be sure to spend time on your business and not in your business. It's a cliché for a reason. Build and develop a team that can provide continuity upon your exit.
Keep good books and records. Top dollar never goes to the sloppy operation. Reputable CPA's are worth the expense to make sure you have the proper records. Records are the difference between a concept and a business.
Customer concentration - If all your revenue comes from a few clients, that may scare off potential buyers. No one customer should makeup more than 10% of your annual revenue.
Continued Growth - It seems obvious, but buyers want to see evidence that the profitability they were attracted to in the first place is going to continue.
Trending Up: "What role do you see Digital Marketing playing as a business owner prepares to leave behind something they've worked so hard to build?"
Rich - "I have spoken with hundreds of business owners over the past 13+ years, and never one time has an owner told me that he or she wasn’t interested in acquiring more customers! A high percentage of those companies are depending entirely on their sales force for customer acquisition, and if they have a talented, hard-working sales force, that will certainly help.
Too often, however, they are depending on a poorly designed website to draw customer traffic to their company. A well-designed website, along with a comprehensive, customized digital marketing plan that includes regular feedback on results, can very often dramatically increase customer traffic. Such a plan is not meant to be a substitute for a high-quality sales force, or other forms of advertising, but rather, a dynamic “fuel additive” to customer acquisition efforts."
Trending Up: "You mentioned the hundreds of clients you've helped over the years. What are some of the most common mistakes you have seen as it relates to marketing?"
Rich - "As I mentioned before, there is too often a “throw it up against the wall and see what sticks” approach to marketing and advertising. The often-heard lament among those owners spending money on advertising is “I think half of my advertising dollars are hitting the mark – I just don’t know which half!”
To compound this problem, many owners really don’t know how to efficiently reach their target audiences.
A very high percentage of consumers rely on Google when selecting a product or service provider. A quality digital marketing company like Trending Up Digital Services can be invaluable to business owners by helping them identify and focus on their target market, reach potential customers and significantly increase customer flow."
Trending Up: Last question....let's say a client gets to the sale table and has an interested buyer sitting across from them. What should they be sure to include when the time comes to describe their marketing?
Rich - "A successful marketing strategy shouldn't be overly complicated. Consistency and scheduling are key, but as far as catching the eye of a potential buyer there are several ways to boost that appeal. The ideal plan would identify the ideal customers and where to find them. The plan would also include success metrics and specific ways of regularly measuring the performance of the marketing efforts."
No comments:
Post a Comment