Not Everything Valuable Is Sellable…
Summary
- Not everything that makes money is valuable as an asset for sale. Valuable businesses often don’t rely on the owner.
- If your business depends on you, it’s not an asset someone else can easily buy.
- Find out if your business or your customers’ businesses have a sticky, recurring component. That's crucial for long-term value.
- Check for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity in your industry. Google terms like "coaching business M&A" to see how much activity there is.
- If there's not much M&A activity, there may not be a big market for your business.
- If there is M&A activity, study the models of businesses being bought. Look at what's different between their models and yours.
- Align your business efforts with the models that investors and buyers like. This can help make your business more valuable and sellable.
Video
How To Take Action
I would suggest implementing these steps to make your business more appealing and valuable, especially if you're aiming for growth or a future sale. Focus on low-cost and high-value actions first.
1. Reduce Owner Dependence:
If your business cannot operate without you, it’s not very sellable. Start delegating tasks and setting up systems so the business can run smoothly without your constant involvement. This makes it way more attractive to buyers.
2. Develop Sticky, Recurring Revenue:
Recurring revenue is gold. Look at your offerings and figure out how to make them subscription-based or create a package that customers renew regularly. This ensures stable income and makes your business more valuable.
3. Research Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A):
Go on Google and search for M&A activity in your industry, like “coaching business M&A.” If there’s a lot of activity, it means investors are interested. If not, you might need to adjust your business model.
4. Study Successful Models:
Find out what kinds of businesses are getting bought in your industry. What do they do differently? How do they structure their services or products? Take notes and start implementing similar strategies in your own business.
5. Align with Buyer Preferences:
Investors buy businesses that fit certain models. Once you understand what buyers are looking for—like recurring revenue and less owner dependence—start shaping your business to match these preferences. It doesn’t have to be a big overhaul; small, consistent changes can make a huge difference.
By taking these steps, you'll be on the right path to not only growing but also making your business a valuable asset that's attractive to buyers.
Full Transcript
not everything that is valuable is sellable so just because something makes a lot of money doesn't mean that it's valuable as an asset in and of itself so let's get Tactical for a second how do you figure this out with your business the first thing is is there something that's dependent on you if your business still needs you in it then it's not really an asset that someone else can buy number two is there a component of your business or of your customers businesses that's very stickier recurring and the easiest way to know if you're right about this is looking for m&a activity so mergers and Acquisitions activity for that type of business so if you look if you Google like coaching business m&a Activity one it'll show you how much there is and if you don't find a lot then you'll be like okay maybe there isn't a big market for this number one number two if you do find some also look at the model that they're doing what is the difference between those businesses and my business and then you'll be able to bridge the gap and say oh these are the things that these buyers like not these other things and then you can start orienting your effort and your business model around the things that investors have proven that they like