If you are planning to sell your business any time soon, you are probably hoping that you will receive a certain offer that will make your exit worthwhile. However, when it’s time to sell, you – like many other business owners – might find that your business is not worth as much as you had hoped. This can be disheartening, especially if you already had made retirement plans. But this does not have to happen. Before you sell your business, it is possible to increase its value, thus guaranteeing that you will get a better offer.
Even if you are not planning to sell your business any time soon, it is important to continually look for ways to improve performance – a competitive edge in the market, brand recognition, a better bottom line, etc. And when it is finally time to sell – even if it is 20, 30, 40, or 50 years down the line – you can be sure that interested buyers will be lining up with offers.
So, how can you increase the value of your business and reap these benefits? Below is a look at top tips that can help you:
Thoughtful Entrepreneur Podcast: EP 006 – Navigating the Turning Point of Your Business – Michael Roub
1. Get Professional Advice from an Outsider
One of the best ways of growing the value of your business is to get a fresh perspective from a professional. This can be a consultant, a financial expert, other entrepreneurs, or other professionals who can offer you sound business advice. These outsiders can identify some of the challenges hindering the growth of your business and provide innovative solutions that will help you overcome them. They can also help you identify great opportunities, which can help to increase the value of your enterprise.
2. Perform Regular Business Plan Reassessments
When starting enterprises, many business owners create solid business plans that they intend to follow strictly. However, once the business is up and running and the daily tasks start piling up, it is possible to stray away from the plan, and over time, completely forget about it. This is the reason why it is important to perform a business plan reassessment.
A reassessment is like a self-reflection of your business, which helps you to determine if:
• You are on track with the objectives of your business
• There are any shortcomings in the business
• There are opportunities you have not taken advantage of
Performing regular reassessments – for example, one every two years – will help to ensure that you never stray away or lose sight of your original business goals. It will also help to ensure that your business is growing in the way you intended it to.
3. Understand Your Passion and Focus on it
Many business owners make the mistake of thinking that running a business means doing everything. As a result, they put all of their time and effort into doing everything – from management, marketing, accounting, etc. Unfortunately, this ends up doing more harm to the business, as you are forced to spend most of your time on tasks that you don’t like or are not good at.
It is for this reason why you should instead identify the one area you are good at and passionate about, and focus on it. This way, you will be able to maximize the value of that area, which will help to increase the overall value of your business. As for the other areas, you can hire someone, or even outsource them.
If You Don’t Succeed Today, Tomorrow is Another Day Full of Opportunities
Increasing the value of your business is not a simple thing that can be done in a day. It is a process that takes time, and your efforts might not always bear fruit. However, you should not give up. Instead, you should learn from the efforts that don’t pan out and use the experience to make more insightful decisions in the future.
Michael Roub
Inflection 360
I recently spoke on a Thoughtful Entrepreneur podcast and discussed these and other topics further. You can access the podcast here: EP 006 – Navigating the Turning Point of Your Business – Michael Roub
Michael Roub is an experienced strategic consultant and Managing Partner of Inflection 360. Michael advises businesses and healthcare practices on a wide range of strategic initiatives.
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