How to Make Your Business Easy to Sell

In this blog post, I am going to be talking about how you can sell your business, preparing your business to sell it, and as you build your business, how can you optimise it, so that you have a potential opportunity to sell it?

One of the first things which Kev learnt really early on, from his engineering days; systemising in engineering is all about engineering and outcome, which is mechanical, and the probability of success and failure can be designed in a way to give it the optimum potential to each the outcome.

Learn how to hire staff members here:

See From An Asset Point Of View

Kev had the same philosophy coming into business, where if you want to build a business, you have got to see it from an asset point of view, where you are building something which is an asset that you can potentially sell. That was the philosophy of how everything that Kev has done, every single moment and every single strategic move, Kev always had that in mind. 

Let me dig down deeper, and let me explain what I mean by this.

So, when you think of your business right now, whatever your business is; for example, let's say you have got an eCommerce business, or you have got an Amazon FBA business, you have got to see it from a point of view, are you able to sell that as an asset in its entirety to somebody who is potentially interested in buying a business.

Your Business Can't Just Be Reliant On One Thing

Depending on where you are at in your business lifecycle, you could right now be doing everything yourself, be doing everything from home, you could be sourcing, purchasing, you could have all the knowledge; all these things where, when you first start a business you are the business. But once you go to sell it, and you are no longer in a business, and you are no longer part of that business, then you have got to think from an investor point of view, if Kev were to look for a business, the first thing Kev would look at is how much of an asset is the business, and how much is the business dependant on any one thing. So, for example, an artist, an actress or singer; if you think of Jay-z, Jay-z can't sell Jay-z, because he is Jay-z. Tom Hanks, can't sell Tom Hanks, because he is Tom Hanks. He is his own personal asset.

When it comes to a business, and in terms of selling it in terms of a sellable asset, you have got to try and disconnect the personal aspect of it, and have the business be a standalone entity, which means that the business, when you are first starting it, it is like a baby, but if you leave the baby, the baby is very dependant on its parents; it is very dependant on its mother and on its father, for warmth, shelter, food, and the basic survival of the baby. But as the baby grows, as it learns, and as it begins to walk, starts to feed itself, starts to understand, it begins to know what danger is, it begins to be able to communicate with other people, and as a baby grows into a toddler, into a small child, small teenager and adult.

Eventually a baby turns into an adult, and the adult is now hopefully self-sustaining. So, if for whatever reason, the adult is put in a situation where they have nobody, they can look after themselves - they can find a way to feed themselves, become warmer or avoid danger. Your business is very similar to this. You need to see your business as assets. What this means in terms of assets is processes, systems, having the ability for the process and system from start to finish, to be able to survive. 

Learn more about assets here:

How can you do this?

You have got to think of the knowledge in your business, you have got to think of the team members, and the team that you have, you have got to think of the processes and the resources, the tools, and everything from the tools, resources, contacts, emails, you think of the customers, the clients; absolutely everything, from the banking side of things, all the way to the documentation side of things; so, it is a standalone asset.

If this guides you in your way of building your business, you will do specific things. Long term productivity over the long term, will always outweigh short term positives. For example, let's say in the short term, you can save money by not having a team member, but in the long term, it is going to make you less productive, because if you have a team member, that is now an asset for your business, the experience, the knowledge is built in that team member.

If you then sold that business, it is now in the position where that team member knows how you work and how you operate. If you think of the documentation in your business, the education; if you think of everything from marketing, sales, customer journey, if you think of the actual processes within, and how you can put your knowledge onto pieces of paper, onto a Google Drive document, onto a video, which is then an asset for your business, and this makes it more and more attractive. If you think about selling your business, it is going to make it a lot more attractive for your customers, for other people, who are looking to buy something in its entirety. It is not like you have just purchased the business, and that you have just done a full buy-out, 100% of your business, you are going to give them hundreds of thousands of pounds, but now they have to be on the phone with you all the time, asking how things work. This is going to be a significant barrier. 

My challenge to you, is for you to think of your business in its entirety in terms of an individual entity; what does it need to survive? What is its food? What is its clothing? What is its shelter? Is that the people? The resources? The people? The tools? The know-how, the experience? The systems? That is what is going to allow you to build your business in a way, that one day in the future, it could potentially be something of significant value, which could be sold to someone else. 

Question For You

What is your business worth? What is your business worth right now? In terms of assets, the entirety of the entity. Could you sell your business right now? If that is a no, what have you got to do in your business to make it its individual asset? How do you get that baby to an adult? This is going to then guide you in what you decide to do.

Fulfilment By EBAY?!! Amazon FBA’s Competitor MUST Get This Right If They Are To Compete

How To Recruit & Train Your Virtual Assistants

How to Find the Right Warehouse