EP Blog

There are many ways in which a business owner can seek guidance on how to deal with important issues, challenges, and opportunities.

𝐀𝐝𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐅𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲
Often business owners reach out to friends and family members when looking for advice. They know and trust these people. Some may even work in the business or be business owners or professional service providers. But because of their relationship, their advice may be filtered because of their close relationship and limited to the specific experience of one individual.

𝐀𝐝𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬
Professional service providers (PSPs) are valuable resources for a business owner. The owner often has relationships with accounting firms, legal firms, business coaches, bankers, wealth managers and other types of PSPs. In many cases, the expertise of these providers is very valuable. Although some of these PSPs have broad experience, the advice they give is sometimes limited to their specific expertise and advisory role.

𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩 𝐂𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠
Group Coaching is a method used by many consulting professionals to provide a cost-effective way to deliver education and advice to business owners who have a specific common interest. Group coaching is beneficial for start-up business owners, revenue growth, business operation systems, or financial management. These groups are often topic focused and highly dependent on the experience of the specific coach.

𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩𝐬
Mastermind groups come in many different forms. They may be industry focused, part of a network group, personal motivation oriented, niche oriented, or broadly focused. They typically are headed by a single or rotating moderator, who manages each meeting.

𝐏𝐞𝐞𝐫-𝐭𝐨-𝐏𝐞𝐞𝐫 𝐀𝐝𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩𝐬
Innovation comes from securing advice from business owners from diverse industries with different points of view. Each group is built by selecting like-minded business owners of similarly sized businesses who commit to meeting regularly to discuss important issues, challenges and opportunities. Education on a wide variety of topics is often a key element of these advisory boards.  Each advisory group is headed by a facilitator who typically has many years of broad management and ownership experience. Both the facilitator and group members also provide an important function of holding other members accountable for their committed actions.

Of the different advisory approaches, peer-to-peer advisory groups provide the most comprehensive and effective forum for business owners and CEOs to receive critical education and informed and experienced feedback honestly provided in a non-threatening environment.

One of the key issues in selling or transitioning from a business is dealing with the issue of WHEN SHOULD I EXIT? In making this decision it is important to note that there are three different cycles that should influence this decision.

𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐘𝐂𝐋𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐖𝐍𝐄𝐑
Each of the owners of a business has their individual time in their life that they would want to sell. This can be determined by normal retirement, impacted by the 5 D’s (Death, Divorce, Disability, Disagreement, and Distress) or driven by desires to do something different before retirement. Considering that many buyers want the owner to stay around for 1-2 years after the sale and proper preparation of the business for sale or transition usually takes 1 or more years, the planned exit date for the owner(s) should be adjusted for these factors.

𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐘𝐂𝐋𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒
Every business goes through periods of growth and perhaps decline. Some businesses continue to grow in size over time. Other businesses reach plateaus in revenue and profits. Selling a business should be done while the business is still in a growth mode. This will generate the highest sale multiple.

𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐘𝐂𝐋𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐂𝐀𝐏𝐈𝐓𝐀𝐋 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐄𝐓
The lifecyle of the Private Capital Market is a chart of the multiples that Private Equity Group use in determining how much to pay for their investments. This is impacted by changes in available investor funds, which are often impacted by the economy and interest rates. These multiples have typically cycled up and down over a span of several years. Clearly the best time to sell would be while multiples are at high levels.

𝐁𝐀𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐘𝐂𝐋𝐄 𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐕𝐄𝐒
The best time to sell a company is at a time when the business is still growing, the owner is approaching retirement and the multiples in the Private Capital Market are high. If the company has been growing and can forecast strong forward-looking growth and the multiples in the Private Capital Market are high, it may be better to sell before the owner would normally have retired.

Answer: One that is too dependent on the owner.