What are your business goals for the year? If you’re like most owners, you have revenue and profit goals you want to hit. While those goals are important, there is another objective that may have an even bigger payoff: building a sellable business. But what if...
Asking customers to pay to join a special group of your best patrons can increase your revenue, encourage customers to buy new products and services from you, provide a healthy boost to your cash flow, and increase the value of your business. Just ask Jeff...
In my previous blog I wrote to owners about taking an extended vacation to learn how your company performs while you are away. Analyze your inbox when you return to learn what you need to do to improve your company and make it more attractive...
A recent survey by The Sellability Score found companies that can perform well without their owner for a period of three months are 50% more likely to receive an acquisition offer when compared to more owner-dependent businesses. There is no better justification for taking a peaceful,...
The Mile-Wide Trap ensnares you when you do an excellent job serving a small number of great customers and they ask you to handle more of their work. You keep delivering, and they keep broadening the list of products and services they want you to...
If your company’s revenue has stalled after a period of rapid growth, you may have fallen into The Mile-Wide Trap. Consider the case of Kim (not her real name) who runs a public relations firm. Kim studied marketing at school and went on to work for...
Being a middleman (or woman) has become risky business. When was the last time you used a travel agent? Travel agencies have largely become irrelevant for most people given the rise of online travel booking. How about a record/CD store? iTunes and online music subscription services...
You are ready to learn how to sell your business...
For your business to be valuable – and sellable one day – you need some way to generate sales after you’re gone. Many business owners hire a superstar salesperson to replace themselves as a rainmaker but that’s a trap. By replacing yourself with a single salesperson,...
A recent article in M&A Today offered some observations concerning current and future M&A trends. “The business world is constantly changing. For the first half of the 20th century, vertical integration was the objective in which, oil companies, for example, owned the entire process from drilling...