Posts

2020 Exit Planning Checklist

/in /by

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | 2020 Exit Planning ChecklistAll business owners will stop being business owners at some point.  So, there is no better time to begin planning for the inevitable than the present.  The earlier you begin planning, the more options you will have for a successful exit.

However, like any strategic plan, it can be difficult to know how and where to begin.  With the start of the new year it’s also an ideal time for us to publish a basic “To-Do List” that will serve you in considering that most significant event as a business owner…your future exit.

DECIDE WHERE YOU WANT TO GO.  Establish Clear Goals and Objectives for Exit and Your Life After Exit.

  • When do you want to leave the business? Whom do you wish to transfer/sell the business to?
  • What are your values-based and legacy exit goals?
  • What is your post-exit “life-plan”? Business owners can often regret leaving when lacking a plan for life that replaces the sense of purpose and meaning they experienced in building their business.
  • Update your Personal Financial Plan. Find out how much $$$$ you will need post-exit to do all you want to do. Is there a gap?

ASSESS WHERE YOU ARE.  Without Accurate Data All Planning Becomes Meaningless.

  • Get an accurate Business Valuation. If the business is your largest asset shouldn’t you know what it really is worth to potential buyers?
  • Assess your business Value-Drivers and areas of Risk.
  • Review your Business Continuity Plan for life transitions and unexpected death or disability. Co-Owners would include a review of their Buy-Sell Agreement to ensure alignment with the current goals of all owners.
  • Review Estate Plan to ensure alignment with exit goals.

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENT A PLAN.  Build Transferable Value and Enjoy a Future Exit On Your Own Terms and Conditions.

  • Which Exit Route will best accomplish your goals? Sale to Third-Party | Sale to Insiders | Transfer to Family Members | Sale to ESOP | Absentee Owner.
  • Focus on growth and profitability today. At the core of tomorrow’s successful exit plan is today’s profitability and plan for growth.
  • Strengthen business value drivers. An owner with a sellable business will have more freedom in life and options for exit.
  • Update a strategic financial plan for the business.
  • Do you have the right Team of Experienced Advisors for plan design and implementation?
  • Who will Manage the Exit Planning Project?

The most important thing you could do in 2020 would be to GET STARTED AND GET HELP if you have yet to do so.  If you wait until you’re ready to exit to begin planning, you won’t be ready and neither will your business.  Keep in mind, that “You don’t know what you don’t know” and, like in all other areas of life, that could end up being disastrous.

There is much at stake during this most significant event in your life as a business owner.  Take steps in 2020 to be as responsible and successful in planning your eventual exit as you have been in running your business.

About the Author

Pat Ennis is the President of ENNIS Legacy Partners (ennislp.com). The mission of ELP is to help business owners build value and exit on their own terms and conditions. With decades of experience in financial services, for-profit and non-profit leadership and management, along with the founding of ELP in 2010, Pat has extensive knowledge and understanding of the many challenges faced by business owners.  His knowledge base, experience, and training results in a goals-based, comprehensive approach for business owners’ who are intent on building transferable business value and exiting their business responsibly and successfully.

“A successful business owner with a thriving business has tremendous impact on many people, including: their family, employees, customers, suppliers, vendors, the community in which they do business and both the local and national economies. All of this impact… all that they’ve built… is at stake when and how they exit their business. We want to help them be as impactful in how they exit their business as they have been in building it.”

What Services Does Your Business Need To Soar?

/in /by

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | What Services Does Your Business Need To Soar?

As a business, there are certain services that you are going to need to ensure that the day-to-day operations of your company are running smoothly. As well as this, you are going to need help bringing in more customers and keeping everything going, which is why we have written this article. Down below, you are going to find some of the services that your business is going to need to soar!

Marketing

The first thing that we are going to look at is marketing. Marketing lets people know who you are, what you are about, and why they should choose you over the other companies on the market right now. Marketing is something that you can do yourself, but if you don’t have experience in this field, then you are better off hiring someone to help you out here. The reason that we say this is because marketing has to be done right, or it is not going to have the desired effect. For example, if you have a bad advertising campaign, then people aren’t going to want to use your business.

Professionals know what the average consumer is looking for. They have designed marketing campaigns before, so they know what to do. The experience that they bring to the table is going to be invaluable.

Accounting

The next thing that you are going to need is help with your accounting. Now, you might not have to hire someone to do this for you if you don’t want to. There is plenty of accounting software such as QuickBooks Online that are available for you to use to make things run smoother. Alternatively, you can hire a qualified accountant to deal with this for you, and you might find this is a good idea, especially if you aren’t great with numbers. They will be able to give you a good idea about where you can save money, and what areas of the business need more money put into them. This on top of managing your money to make sure that you are on track!

Human Resources

Finally, human resources are going to be a big help to you. A lot of business owners will say that this is a waste of money, but they won’t be saying that when they are dealing with an issue with an employee, and they don’t know how to handle it correctly. A human resources team make sure that all issues with employees are handled well according to the law and the situation at hand. It is far easier to run your company when there is someone else handling this, freeing up your time to deal with other matters.

We hope that you have found this article helpful, and now know what services your business needs to soar! If you take our advice, you are going to have all of the services that you need, and while it might seem like a big investment in the first place, you are going to be thankful that you made it further along down the line.

How To Create A Productive Office

/in , /by

StrategyDriven Talent Management ArticleSometimes it’s hard to stay focused when you’re at work, especially if you’re inside a stifling office space on a warm day. Of course, you’d always rather be somewhere else than at work, but what you can do is make your working environment more appealing, more fun, and a productive place to be. If you’re an office manager and you’re considering making changes to the place in order to boost productivity, then your first port of call should be to ask your staff members. Once you’ve got a good idea of what needs changing, and you’ve assessed the suggestions, you can then get to work.

Refurbish

If your office space is looking outdated and is showing signs of wear and tear, then now is the time to consider a complete refurbishment. As long as your budget permits it, gut the entire office in favor of new flooring, freshly painted walls throughout, new and improved desks and chairs, and a reworking of the oppressive overhead lights. Pile the accumulated waste into a dumpster provided by a Dumpster rental Phoenix, so that it can be disposed of responsibly. Clean out your office and strip it back to basics to rebuild an attractive and productive environment.

Encourage Socialization

When it comes to decorating, try and create communal spaces that encourage your team to talk to each other and build relationships. When designing the staffroom, opt for large long couches so that the team has to be convivial and sit next to one another. Prepare group work, and ask that small teams work together to create a final result. Praise the teams for their effort and consideration of others.

Improve Air Quality

Without proper air ventilation, it’s very easy to become unfocused, tired, and to overheat – all of which aren’t going to help your team in trying to be as productive as possible. So, install new ventilation units if the current ones are somewhat lackluster, and keep plants in every available space throughout the premises. After all, not many people object to flowers, fresh greens, and other plants that keep the air clean. Having said this, always makes sure to ask about allergies before adding foliage around the office.

Offer Tea And Coffee

If you work in an office, you’ll understand the importance of caffeinated beverages to power you through the morning. Recognize that your team work hard to achieve their targets and reach their goals, so help them along the way and offer free coffee and tea whenever they might be in need of a pick-me-up. Create an inclusive, friendly environment for your employees, and you might just find that productivity increases tenfold.

Have An Open Door Policy

Your employees need to know that they can approach you whenever they need to discuss something. So, with this in mind, consider operating an open door policy whereby you’re on hand whenever the need arises. Tell your staff that you care about their welfare, their opinion, and possible suggestions about how the office is run and how the company performs. If your team know that you’re there to offer assistance and help them, then they should feel more relaxed, understood, and willing to work hard.

Do You Have What It Takes to Hack It as a Female Founder?

/in , /by

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship ArticleWomen’s curiosity and interest in entrepreneurship is at an all-time high. Getty Images has seen a fourfold increase in searches for “woman entrepreneur” photos in the last year alone. With the popularity of television shows such as Shark Tank and The Profit, more and more women are wondering if they have what it takes to be a female founder.

It takes more than having a good idea to be a successful entrepreneur. While there are a vast range of personalities, educations, and backgrounds among female founders, there are a few personality traits that are paramount to hacking it as a woman entrepreneur.

Passion is one such trait. To be a female founder, you must be passionate about the product or service you have devised to solve a problem. Authentic passion is what helps women find the best employees, sell their customers, and sell potential investors. If you don’t believe in yourself and your idea, no one else will, no matter how good it is.

Having enough grit and self-motivation to overcome setbacks and disprove early nay-sayers is another important characteristic of successful women entrepreneurs. The women who use negative statements as fuel for success instead of self-doubt are the ones who build ideas into thriving companies. Entrepreneurship is a high-contact emotional sport. If you get knocked down or denied seven times, you need to stand up eight times and keep pushing to make your dream a reality.

Long-term vision is needed for women to make the leap into entrepreneurship. Our tendency to be risk adverse serves us well after we launch a company, but that same tendency can having us making lists of reasons why we shouldn’t launch our own businesses. Female founders typically have the ability to see the big picture and justify the risks and challenges that come with startups because they know they will be successful.

If you have an amazing idea as well as the traits outlined in this article, you have what it takes to hack it as a female founder. Take the time to validate your idea and market, map your business plan, and prepare for the ride of your life!

About the Author

Danielle Tate is the author of Elegant Entrepreneur and founder and CEO of MissNowMrs.com, a multimillion dollar online name-change company. As a female founder in her 20s she noticed that few business guides offered step-by-step advice to smart but inexperienced entrepreneurial woman.

How to Raise Revenue for an Entrepreneurial Start-Up

/in , /by

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship ArticleThe first step in raising revenue for an entrepreneurial start-up is to outline a detailed marketing strategy. It is important for start-up entrepreneurs to test their assumptions as soon as they can. A big reason for the success of established companies is that they never invest large capital or significant time on any project unless they have determined that it has an overwhelming probability of success. The corporate world taught me that most ideas fail in the marketplace. When this happens, it should fail quickly and cheaply. You just want to make sure that you are not overwhelmingly hurt when you experience this inevitable fact.

Complete the following exercise carefully before you launch your marketing campaign. Accuracy in this exercise will be crucial to your future business success:

1. Decide who is your ideal customer – Most entrepreneurs start with a great product or service idea, but fail in correctly identifying their ideal customer and instead will sell to anyone who buys from them. This is probably one of the biggest mistakes I still see today, especially in the online world.

There are two main reasons you want to determine who these ideal or dream customers are: first, your ideal customers will appreciate your offers and will pay for it based on your value, not price; and second, they are more likely to refer more business your way.

Hi there! This article is available for free. Login or register as a StrategyDriven Personal Business Advisor Self-Guided Client by:

Subscribing to the Self Guided Program - It's Free!

About the Author

Ajay PrasadAjay Prasad owns GMR Web Team, a digital marketing agency dedicated to helping businesses maximize revenue from internet. He also invests in web-based start-ups. Ajay also operates a seven-figure web based business, GMR Transcription, which he built from scratch and grew it by using strategies that he uses for his digital marketing clients.