Sell your Business

We hear from NNEP members and other apparel decoration business owners on a regular basis that they hope to sell their businesses at some point in the future.  I have been doing some research on what could be involved in that process.  I just finished reading the book Built to Sell, by John Warrillow, which Norma Rist lent to me.

He takes the process of structuring your business so that it is sellable and delivers it as a story about a business owner and the mentor that helps him take his business from a struggling service-based business to a sellable product-based business.  Throughout the book, the mentor provides the key steps a business owner must accomplish to position their company to have the highest possible value to a potential buyer.  I found it easy to relate to Alex, an independent marketing agency owner, as he faces challenges such as long hours, demanding clients and always being in "tough times" financially.

One of the biggest take-aways for me was to recognize that any business, ANY service-based business, can be retooled to be a product-based business.  And this is important because the process for selling a product business is very different than the process of selling a service business.  The big difference is that the owner of a product-based business is likely to walk away with more cash when their business is sold.

At the end of the book, Warrillow summarizes his story with a step by step Implementation Guide on how to create a business that can thrive without out.

NNEP Members - for my notes on this book, read the NNEP Members Only blog post here.

At only 150 pages, the book is a quick and enjoyable read.  You may not be thinking about selling your business now, but after reading this book, you are likely to think about your business in ways that will help you if you ever want to.  If you read the book, let me know what you think below!