Business is a Competition

I’ve not revealed this before, but earlier this year I was invited to be on the panel of judges for the “ActionCoach My Business Magazine Awards”.  I felt it was a great honour to be asked so could not refuse the request.  The task was not easy for many reasons.  The number of entrants was significant and thousands of pages of data had to be considered carefully to form an assessment of each candidate.  With most being of such an incredibly high standard, this truly made the task for judges very difficult.  Amazingly though, most of us formed a fairly similar opinion of those candidates that really stood out from the crowd.

It got me thinking about how important it is to stand out from the crowd when you’re in business, and not just to win competitions.  It demonstrated to me yet again, that it’s no accident when a business is successful.  It does become obvious to everyone when you stand out from others in business, and there is a lesson in it for each of us in business.

As a follower and regular reader of this blog, you already know that I bang the drum (rather loudly) about business succession, and I do so because you are operating a business that I know you will one day hope to sell.  You’re working hard building an asset, and often you’re so hard working ‘in’ it, that you can overlook working ‘on’ it.

I want to see my followers succeed and stand out from the crowd, especially the crowd that is gathering around the ‘for sale’ post.  I’m referring to the tsunami I mention in my book “Your Business Succession”, because the average demographic age group of small to medium sized business owners are so near to retirement and are looking for ways to extract their equity to move on to another phase in their life.  With so many about to do this (80% in the next 5 to 10 years) there will be quite a crowd of businesses selling.  It will become a buyer’s market and only those that ’stand out’ from the crowd will gain the most when they exit.

You Business Succession
Leigh Riley

Too Young To Exit?  Think Again

Now before you zone out because you think you’re too young for formal exit strategies and succession plans to matter, think about these two very important points:

• 50% of business owners leave well before retirement because of factors they could not have imagined, such as dispute, divorce, disability and death.  You don’t want to get caught out in a weakened position trying to liquidate your business equity in a crowded market, so take steps to ensure you have an action plan that will keep you in control to capitalise when you exit despite your circumstances.
• Raising Capital to grow your business or release your equity when exiting your business takes time to organise.  In fact it’s damn hard for an SME like yours to get finance for anything related to business if you don’t have a clearly demonstrated and formal exit strategy in place. That means your business growth could be stifled or you could get stuck without any funding when you do leave.  Either scenario is one you definitely want to overcome well beforehand, so get ready now.

Time For Your Business To Stand Out In The Crowd!

The  reason I’ve commenced a series of FREE educational webinars, is so you can see what you can do to ’stand out’ and make the difference for maximised cash flow and profits, with an enhanced  business valuation and a strategy to ensure you get paid what you deserve for your lifetime of effort in business, through most circumstances.

I’m pleased to reveal the finalists have been chosen for the ‘ActionCoach My Business Awards’ .  You may see those that ’stood out’ for yourself by clicking here.

Here’s to your business success and profitable exit!

Leigh Riley

The Future

At a recent presentation given by futurist, Morris Miselowski (Business man, dynamic speaker, entrepreneur, academic, prison chaplain, welfare counsellor, media personality and futurist guru), the audience was astounded by his vision for the future of technology and its effects on business. Most people around me expressed opinions which ranged from dismay and excitement through to some being totally shocked and aghast by the extreme innovation and change about to unfold.

During the presentation, Miselowski outlined just some of the changes that will occur in 2020:

• We will have moved forward 100 technological years
• Average job tenure will be 2.4 years
• 1/4 workers will be working remotely or virtually
• 60% of tasks and jobs performed have not yet been invented
• Our growing healthcare industry will service our ageing population as we strive for quality of life as we routinely live to 100 years of age and beyond
• Expect to see a growing number of Genetic Counsellors, Stem Cell Researches and Custom Implant Organ designers jobs being advertised
• Baby Boomers will be hiring retirement coaches and counsellor, financial advisors and wealth experts to advise them on how to maximise their post work lives.
• Digital professional will be another sought after industry due to online worlds.

Change or Die

Whatever the consensus or feelings, the message was very clear. Either move with the times and shift your business focus to be aligned with the new innovations or you and your business will be out of the race. With 20 years of change already squeezed into the past 2 years, Miselowski cautioned business owners to brace and prepare, for the next 10 years will unfold a whole century of change during that time. Now that’s enough change to surpass author Alvin Toffler’s predictions in the 1970 book titled “Future Shock”.

Future Shock

Whether your perspective to change, tends toward abhorrence or enthusiasm, there is no time to lose. Navigating your business through will require you to sharpen your business skills and optimise your business performance to capitalise through impending change. Couple this reality with surfing through the Tsunami wave of businesses about to change hands, there is no doubt there will be fall out.  Only those that team vision, with the ability to adapt will be in a position to capitalise. You are going to want a robust support team. Business Coaching with the end in mind will likely be one of the only ways you’ll achieve your goals.

Your Business Life Raft is Your Business Succession Support Team

You’ll want to demand an up-to-date succession plan. Necessity dictates your strategy to handle your eventual business exit must include provision for planned and unplanned exit circumstances. But it must also incorporate the array of strategies to unleash operational business opportunities and uncover pitfalls that could impact the lifeline of your business, it’s value and continuity. Ultimately it will affect your family and personal financial security.

Take Action today

Get started by Downloading your free chapters from the ”Your Business Succession” book.

Here’s to your successful future business exit strategy!

Leigh Riley

So if you’ve been signed onto my blogs recently, you’d be aware that I’ve been in the USA learning all that I can about the latest exit planning strategies at an MBA style intensive program run at the University of Chicago. I’m pleased to report that I passed the exam which means I’m now able to put more letters after my name as a qualified CEPA®, but the best bit was that I learned a lot, and I met a lot of great people too. I’ve also been indoctinated into the Institute of Exit Planners.

Surprisingly, there are not a lot of people in the world specialising in Succession Planning, and at the risk of sounding a bit precious, I’m kind of one of a very unique group in the world. In Australia, that group is especially unique and tiny, because there are only four Aussies with this qualification, and three of them were at the training with me. What does that mean for you? Well it’s something to be aware of when you seek out your succession support, because there may be some people posing as professionals in the area of succession planning, but if they aren’t formally qualified, you’d have to wonder how good their services and advice will be to you.

There is a lot to consider with your business exit plan, and the statistics are not good for Aussies, who have so often failed to plan for the important succession event that will inevitably happen in their business.

If you need to know what to do to get started, download some free chapters from my book: Your Business Succession and sign up for my regular blog to receive lots of helpful and handy business exit planning tips.

Here’s to your Profitable Exit Strategy!

Leigh Riley M Bus, Certified Exit Planning Advisor® (CEPA®), DFP, Cert IV A & WT
Consultant Business Succession Strategist, Author, Speaker, Trainer