New year – Groundhog Day, or is this the year to achieve what you want?

Ready to transition from the ‘middle phase’ to the ‘exit phase’? Regain energy and shape your business on your terms - scale back or boost dividends. The choice is yours!”

Let’s start with some questions – if you answer “Yes” five times, save yourself a couple of minutes because this article isn’t for you!

• Does your business give you enough income to fund the lifestyle you want?
• Do you have the right people in the right roles?
• Do you have a clear action plan to grow your business?
• Do you have enough time in the day for all the important things?
• Do you still want to be in business?

Typical timeline of a business

Most business owners that get through the first few years started out with no money, big ideas, and plenty of energy. Growth was rapid (and exciting), processes were designed, and teams were built. There still wasn’t any spare cash, but things were fun and every day was both challenging and rewarding.

I see the same kind of ideas and energy show up in the period immediately before a business sale. That period where we are dressing up the business. We fix up profitability, deal with key person issues, finish off the procedures manual, and put effort into tidying up loose ends. There is energy again, we get quick wins and all of a sudden the business looks amazing and then the question comes…. Why am I selling? The business has never been more profitable and I spend less time in the business than ever before. Why would I sell, when I could just continue on picking up the dividends?

The problem is that these two periods outlined above are typically 20-30 years apart. What about all those years in the middle? We can get in a routine of just showing up each day and doing the same things we did yesterday. We can feel stuck, unhappy, bitter, and unmotivated. All the while it feels like hard work and the reward for all that is that the business goes sideways year after year. We often need to be really unhappy before we’ll actually do something about it, so we get to that point and then decide the only answer is that we have to sell. Then we look at it differently again because we want to maximise sale value. What if instead we’d chosen to address it sooner?

My challenge to you is to get out of the middle phase and move into the exit phase. I don’t mean that you should go and sell tomorrow; what I mean is, why not run the business as though you might be selling? Bring back the energy, challenge the way things get done. Make it look the best it’s ever looked - and then reassess. Can you scale back your hours and spend more time with your family, or travelling? Can you increase dividends and improve your family’s lifestyle or investment portfolio? You might even get it to the point where you could choose to be an investor who chooses to work when and how they want, rather than the key employee who can’t afford to take holidays…

You get to choose what you do next. You can choose to stay stuck in the middle phase or you can bring forward success, own your business of choice and enjoy the rewards instead of building it up right before exit for the benefit of the next owner.

If you want change and would like some help, our business advisory team helps business owners with this every day. We can take you through goals to strategy to implementation and ultimately a successful exit on your terms. If that sounds good to you, get in contact with us today.