04 Aug Grow, Sell and Retire – Notes From the True Gravity Universe Ep.#1

The other day, I was thinking about a client of mine form about five years ago, we’ll call him David, I was looking at him across the desk and he looked so sad – I asked him, why? He responded, “This has been the worst experience of my life – I have no idea what I’m going to do next.” I looked at him and questioned how this could be the worst experience of his life. He’s sitting there with a cheque for £1.5 million on the table in front of him – most people would be jumping for joy, bouncing off the walls if they had £1.5 million! David felt depressed, he felt deflated as if he had been raked over the coals and then lost.

If we rewind just a little bit and look at mine and David’s initial conversations we had 2 years prior to him sat at the desk with the £1.5 million if front of him. He said: “Okay B.D, I will be coming to you and I’m going to be seeing you with £3.5-£4 million worth of investible money and I’m hoping that you can help give me pay cheque for life like you promised.” I was excited. In the world of investment, we get paid 1% to help people manage and protect their money and the big thing for us is ensuring the more of the clients’ money we must invest, the more we can grow their wealth resulting in a bigger pay cheque.

David’s situation made me think about what happens when somebody sells their business. What steps are required as an entrepreneur? What do you need to do to ensure your business is ready for sale? If you’ve ever sold a house or a car, when did it look it’s best? Most likely, the day you bought it and then the day you sold it. When you sold your car you had it cleaned, polished and valeted, when you sold your house you mowed the lawn, repainted, cleaned the windows so it’s at its peak for sale. Whilst standing there in the freshly decorated house or looking at the shiny car you see things in a new light – the house isn’t so bad after all or the car looks great after a bit of TLC – maybe I’ll keep it. Problem is, someone is coming over to view it.

Then we move onto you. They will go through everything you have planned with a fine-tooth comb. Therefore, people use services such as We Buy Any Car or Purple Bricks – services that take the pain out of selling your house or car and make things so easy to sell something so big. There isn’t anyone out there who can help you with something that you have spent 20, 30, 40 years in – your business. Nurturing and growing it from baby to adulthood or taking it from one place to another or somethings that’s been in the family for generations then letting them walk through that business and tear it apart.

This is why I’ve designed Space Camp, a 12-month online course focusing on growing you and your business so it’s at the point it needs to be when you’re ready to pass your business on, exit it, sell it outright or just make it an amazing business for you to be in. You will find out the importance of nurturing your business from start to finish. Just like when you look at your house or car when it’s ready for sale, you will look at your business and see it at its full potential. Systems, Procedures, Actions, Care and Execution of the plans and proven systems provided.

Now, back to David. Why was he so unhappy? Because expectations VS reality can be very different.

HERE’S A FEW THINGS DAVID SHOULD HAVE FOCUSED ON TO GET HIS DESIRED OUTCOME:

1. Knowing you have everything in line ready for when someone comes in to dissect your business. Make sure everything is in check and your business is at optimum potential when you’re ready to pass your business on or sell up. Is your business where it needs to be to maximise your sale price?
2. Understanding the value of your business. You may get someone coming in talking about price to earnings ratio or EBITDA and a plethora of other acronyms, saying your business is worth X number of pounds and finding other things to knock down the selling price of your business.
3. Another thing you need to asses is your company’s trend – it is rising or declining? For example, it would have been great to have sold a VCR company about two years before the Compact Disk took over the market. You need to ensure that you are on a trend that’s going upwards and not one that’s going downwards.
4. Is everything going in the right direction? Is everyone within your company working together to propel the business forwards?
5. What is your exit strategy? What do you want out of your retirement? Have plans in place ready to implement so when the time does come to pass your business on or sell up, you are well prepared and know what to expect.

Grow your business now, grow your team and grow yourself as the entrepreneur/owner. Keep building your business so when you do sell up or pass it on, you can maximise what you get out of it. You can make your retirement dreams a reality. Join Space Camp, and receive the tools and systems you need to really make a positive difference to your business that will benefit you now and in the future.

For more content like this, check out my regular podcast series, Grow, Sell and Retire, click here to listen.