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

You can’t imagine how honoured I was to be asked to write my next book especially for Australian doctors, and after much hard work and research, I am so excited to finally be holding in my hands ‘hot off the printing press’ copies of “Your Practice Succession …. How to Leave a Legacy and Reap the Rewards of a Lifetime of Service to Your Community”.

Your Practice Succession By Leigh Riley

This book has been specifically written for Australian medical General Practitioners (GPs) and covers situations and cases unique to them affecting their succession and exit planning.

Australian GPs provide an extremely important role in maintaining public health to Australian communities.  The continuity of their services is essential to the wellbeing of all of us which is why my passion has been further fueled to assist this essential sector by writing this book.

Of the nearly 60,000 Australian GPs, their average age is 50 years, and many of them are looking at retiring in the next 10 years.  Without a strategy to exit their practice with a continuity program, it could be that community shortages for their valuable services may be inevitable.  It’s in all of our interests to see GPs manage this process effectively.

Topics that are covered in the book

The book:  “Your Practice Succession” is a detailed look at how to prepare a medical practice so that continuity of service can be achieved whilst also enabling GPs to:

• ensure the quality of lifestyle they worked so hard to achieve
• maximise their practice valuation and sale price
• find the right successor
• pre-arrange the sale terms to lock in the arrangements and practice valuation
• safeguard the practice legacy they will leave
• remain in a position of power and security at each phase of the business cycle in their practice
• be released from debt commitments and exit from their practice with financial freedom
• maximise their cashflow
• maximise their practice profits
• exit from their practice with ease.

Find out more

1. If you would like to purchase the book, you can do that here.
2. If you would like a sneak preview of the book, you can download your FREE chapters here.
3. You can also read book reviews here

I’m so proud to have been part of this project, and it doesn’t stop here. I’m on a mission to ensure succession planning becomes a smooth transition for as many business owners that my work can touch.

Here’s to your Profitable Exit Strategy!

Leigh Riley

Businesses: 6% Will Close Without Selling (ATO)

In Australia, that equates to about 120,000 businesses a year that do not sell, with owners simply closing their doors.  Alarmingly, this statistic is rising due to the large amount of businesses that are not adequately prepared for the issues they will face when the time comes to leave.  They haven’t built their business as a valuable asset with a Business Selling Strategy.  Escaping these statistics is easier than you may think.

75% Have No Succession Plan

The 3 top reasons business owners like yourself state as why they haven’t implemented a formal exit strategy is because

• they’re so busy working ‘in’ their business, they’ve failed to take stock and spend time working ‘on’ their business;
• they think it’s too hard and allow seemingly more pressing everyday tasks to take priority, ultimately losing focus of the big picture for their business with a business selling strategy;
• they don’t see the immediate need, particularly if they feel it will be some years before they wish to retire from their business

The Number of Business Owner’s that will Leave Due to Unplanned Circumstances is 51%

Business owners always believe they will choose the time when they will leave…..but in doing so, they lose control when they overlook the 6 Succession Triggers and fail to understand that only 2 of these can be controlled.  The other 4 exit triggers will adversely affect them, impacting heavily on their financial outcome when they exit from their business.  It doesn’t have to be that way.

How Do You Escape and Overcome the Succession Statistics?

I can’t cover all the ways for you here in a short blog post, but I can share a lot more techniques in the books, and also in a FREE Webinar.  If you are serious about your business direction, have a goal for the way you see it developing as a valuable asset that you can one day sell, you can’t afford to miss the opportunity.  Sign up for the FREE Webinar to learn how! You can do this by emailing your interest to my office at support@ybsprofits.com  or  call 1300 499 225 or (03) 9584 5099 to book your place. The session will be on 21 June 2011 and they will run in two timeslots, 2pm or 7pm for 45 minutes each.

Here’s to Your Profitable Exit Strategy!

Leigh Riley