[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default”][vc_column_text]How many businesses are likely to list for sale in the next five years? We don’t know the exact number, but we do know that business owners planning to sell must begin now to prepare for exit or succession.
These 5 actions will help you get started.
1) Use Exit Planning as Your Guiding Light – Whether building to sell or building to last, use exit planning as your guiding light to gain an external perspective. Stakeholders will compare your business to others in the marketplace and doing so broadens your perspectives to inform strategic decisions.
2) Cultivate Performance Across Your Business Drivers – Assess and accelerate your business drivers, which include:
- The ability to scale your business
- having a positive cash cycle
- customer, employee, owner and/or vendor dependence
- having a clear market differentiator
- financial results and reliabilities in your numbers
- customers that promote you
3) Benchmark Yourself to Peers – When planning, compare your financial ratios and key performance indicators (KPI) to your peers. Critical thinking about variances will help you understand the story behind the numbers, identifying specific opportunities to do even better.
4) Examine Your Business Valuation – Examine your business valuation and the trend, at least annually when planning, to determine what’s working and what’s holding you back. In addition, when you must make a material decision, examine how alternatives impact your valuation and ratios to strategically inform your choice. Acquisitions are a prime opportunity to examine how different structures impact the value of your business.
5) Forecast Several Years Out – Based on your historical trends, your current year budget, and future activities, you can forecast profit, cash, assets and liabilities three to five years out, illuminating structural gaps, changes in valuation, and operational/financial drivers.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default”][nectar_btn size=”large” button_style=”regular” button_color_2=”Accent-Color” color_override=”#007581″ icon_family=”none” url=”mailto:team@thehabitsofprofit.com” text=”Contact The Habits of Profitability™ Team” margin_top=”20″][/vc_column][/vc_row]