25 Jul The £1.2 Million Mistake – The Reason I Wrote True Gravity
“Sorry B.D., I know we said when we were planning our retirement that we were going to have £3 million from the sale. We weren’t ready and the buyers were only offering us £1.8 million. Can we still manage the lifestyle/wealth plan we discussed last year?”
“Mr and Mrs Smith, I am the one who is sorry. Let’s start to move through your essential, nice to have and luxury list and see what we need to cut out.”
These conversations happened in a similar fashion three times in one year before I figured out I needed to intervene and create solution. True Gravity is as much about building a sales team as it is about building a team of advisers whose skills will match your goals. We choose our teams usually based on our current situations. Now it is time to build your power team to help you build your escape to your next stage in your legacy.
Scary study statistics show about 5% of owners who are selling their business are ready to do so. The reason this happens is that there has always been a expectation that you would be ready when it was going to happen. One of the main things you need to do is set the levels of what you need versus what you want. You need to engage your wealth team to lay out your family wealth vision. This way you know the lowest amount you should accept for your share of the sale.
Then you are ready to prepare. Your timeline determines how well you can leverage the price up.
Rapid fire top tips:
Are you selling your business in:
1. Two years or less, you need to do two things. You don’t have much time.
a. Sell more products – caveat is profitable products.
b. Reduce overheads – Staff, locations, etc.
c. LEGALS – get contracts in place with key employees, providers, clients and shareholders
2. Three to five years
a. Sell more
b. Growth plan/Sustainable
c. Systems and Standard Operating Procedures
3. Five years or more
a. Brand development
b. Team structure and management integration
c. Product advancement and planning