There are many elements to having a saleable business.
These elements fall in to one of two categories – FINANCIAL and NON FINANCIAL.
To increase the value of a business the owner must work on all elements. The most obvious one is the PROFIT to the owner. We call it the adjusted maintainable net profit! This usually comes down to improving a business’ sales and marketing, whilst keeping expenses under control.
The first thing to understand about sales and marketing is that they are a part of a SYSTEM and PROCESS. It is often referred to as a SALES FUNNEL because you pour lots of LEADS in the top and CLIENTS come out at the bottom. LEADS after qualification become PROSPECTS who after conversion become CLIENTS who after receiving your product or service become REPEAT CLIENTS and REFERRERS to bring in other LEADS via referral. It is a SYSTEM and PROCESS.
But what about the non financial side of the business?
Well there are many non financial elements which we work on with business owners. But probably the most critical one and the one we most often begin with is SYSTEMS. Many businesses we start with are ‘owner centric’ and that makes them very difficult to sell. It also ties the owner to the business.
Ray Kroc, who bought the burger business from the McDonald brothers, is accredited with saying “If your business has intelligent systems then it doesn’t need intelligent people!” He proved that you can employ the lowest skilled and least experienced staff if your business is systemised and people are trained to run the systems.
A way to think about systems is to remember what the acronym S-Y-S-T-E-M-S stands for –Save Your Self Time Energy Money and Stress. And that’s the truth.
I offer a number of different ways to help business owners build their businesses and make it more attractive to buyers. Please click on ‘SERVICES’ to find out more about what I offer.
