You don't have to be selling your business to start asking these questions. The owners who ask them earliest are usually the ones who end up with the most options later — more buyers, more leverage, more control over the outcome.
Whether you're preparing for a future exit, trying to grow enterprise value, or just tired of being the bottleneck in your own company, these six questions apply to you:
- 01How can I make my business less dependent on me?
- 02How do I increase the value of my company?
- 03What makes a business attractive to buyers?
- 04How do I prepare my company for a future exit?
- 05What reduces the value of a small business?
- 06How can I make my business more transferable?
Here's the truth: a business that can't run without you isn't a business. It's a job you own. And a job is hard to value, hard to transfer, and hard to sell for what it's really worth.
The good news is every one of these questions has an answer, and none of them require you to be within five years of selling. Advisors, this applies to you too: these are the same questions your clients should be asking — whether they're building a growth strategy, a succession plan, or an eventual exit.
If you can't answer these questions with confidence, that's exactly why I wrote What's It Worth?