Do you know how to create not any business success but massive business success?
The statistics say it all. Up to 65% of businesses go out of business even if they’ve been around for ten or more years. After all, the seeds of failure are in success itself. Ensuring massive business success today helps you achieve two critical outcomes.
First, you can leverage strategies that create business success and longevity. Second, you leverage your business success to maximize enterprise value. Third, regarding your liquidity event, you can capture the best deal instead of any deal.
Who am I, and how do I know?
I started my eLearning company right out of school without money, experience, or a team. Living in my parent’s attic and running my business, I found a new best friend, otherwise known as failure.
My grit and passion kept me in the game long enough to uncover strategies for business success. And not any success, but massive business success.
With business success came the proverbial knock at the door from a buyer. The buyer was with a multi-billion dollar company and was smart and experienced.
I said “no” to the buyer’s 7-figure offer and “yes” to mastering the art and science of a liquidity event. Then, two years later, I said “yes” to a 9-figure offer from a different buyer.
Two things made the difference.
First, I uncovered seven strategies that locked in massive business success. Second, I created the 9-step roadmap of preparation for my liquidity event.
Today, I pay it forward through the 90-day Deep Wealth Experience. At the heart of the Deep Wealth Experience is the exact 9-step roadmap and seven strategies.
Would you like to learn and master the seven strategies to welcome business success?
Please keep reading.
Why Your Business Must Run Without You (But Probably Doesn’t)
Freedom is the oxygen of the soul – Moshe Dayan.
For business success and a successful liquidity event, here’s a question for you:
Does your business run without you?
If you want sustainable business success, your business must run without you. Having your business run without you as you lose the golden handcuffs that lock you in the business. You get back your time when a world-class management team runs the business.
Read “Want To Increase Your Enterprise Value? Have Your Business Run Without You.”
With more free time, you can work on the business instead of in the business. You now have the time to find painful problems you’re passionate about solving. After all, you started your business by finding a painful problem.
Having your business run without you achieves two critical outcomes. First, you can create a new market disruption by finding and solving painful problems. In the process, you can put yourself out of business so you can put yourself into a more profitable business.
Second, you begin the process of achieving financial freedom. You’re in an ideal position when it comes time for your exit or liquidity event. Buyers pay a premium for businesses that run without the owners.
Remember, up to 90% of liquidity events fail. High on the list of failures is a business that doesn’t run without its owner. Of “successful” liquidity events, 50% to over 100% of the deal value is in the buyer’s pocket. The upcoming strategies will help you from becoming a statistic.
Next up, do you know the one thing you must avoid at all costs?
Please keep reading.
Please Avoid This Business Killer Like The Plague To Unleash Business Success
Plans are useless, but planning is essential – Dwight D. Eisenhower
For business success and a liquidity event, your business must stay in business. A dangerous skeleton in the closet is having the majority of profits come from few clients.
Read “How To Avoid Committing The Worst Mistakes When Preparing For A Liquidity Event.”
Relying on a small number of clients for your business livelihood creates vulnerability. Dangers range from clients dictating unfavorable terms to leaving you. Neither scenario is desirable.
And when it comes to your liquidity event, buyers walk or place a massive penalty on enterprise value. So for business longevity today and enterprise value tomorrow, expand your client base.
Business Success Happens When You Do This One Thing From The Start
It’s not how much money you make. It’s all about how much you keep – Jeffrey Feldberg.
Every business owner should do one thing when starting a business.
Do you know what this one thing is for massive business success?
Tax planning.
Read “5 No BS Strategies That Will Help You Create A Successful Liquidity Event.”
The tax instruments you start today take years to maximize tax savings. Your tax planning also affects the type of liquidity event you have. For example, most deals are either stock or asset purchases. The structure of the deal has big implications for taxes paid.
A quick story.
On my podcast, The Deep Wealth Podcast, an investment banker, let’s call him Timothy, shared a sad story. Timothy went to a big box store to pick up a few supplies.
To Timothy’s astonishment, he saw his client working in the store. Timothy’s client created and ran a successful business. Timothy led the charge to sell the company, and all did well. Or so Timothy thought.
Timothy learned that the client lived the “good life” after the deal. The client bought a vacation home and traveled. Only later did the client realize his lifestyle needed more money.
What happened?
The client did no tax planning and underestimated how much taxes were due to the deal. The client shared that he wasn’t at a point in his life to start another business. Instead, the client chose to work in a big box store to earn extra money.
Truth is stranger than fiction.
For business success, please remember it’s not how much money you make. Instead, it’s how much money you keep.
Business Success Happens Through A Proven And Replicable Sales Process
If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing – W. Edwards Deming.
Step 2 of the Deep Wealth 9-step roadmap, X-Factors, is about increasing value. The mission of any buyer is to reduce risk while maximizing profit.
When you plan for your liquidity event tomorrow, you create business success today. A proven and replicable sales process is an X-Factor.
Read “The 5 Absolute Best X-Factors That Increase Enterprise Value.”
Your future buyer knows what your business did yesterday and today. Your prospective buyer wants to know what your company does tomorrow and beyond.
A proven and replicable sales process shows and tells a buyer the future.
Your liquidity event aside, your business success depends on a replicable sales process.
Are you the only person in the company leading the charge for acquiring clients?
If you said “yes,” you’re not alone. Having the business run without you (the first strategy in the article) has a high ROI. Your business running without you ensures a proven and replicable sales process.
Speaking of proven and replicable, there’s another strategy that welcomes massive business success.
Why Documenting Your Business Processes Creates Business Success
Before beginning, plan carefully – Marcus Tullius Cicero.
Business success or not, most business owners avoid documenting procedures and processes.
Read “Having A Liquidity Event? Here’s How To Capture The Best Enterprise Value.”
Lack of documentation is like a thief in the night robbing you of your wealth. Without documentation, countless meetings, phone calls, and emails happen to answer questions.
Onboarding new team members take more time and often lacks clarity. As a result, both business culture and results suffer.
Documentation unlocks autonomy for your team, especially for critical processes and procedures. The documentation gives team members quick and easy access to their questions. Gone are the days of running a question “up the chain” and waiting.
Through documentation, you have clarity, and clarity creates confidence and certainty. Team members have autonomy and make decisions on the spot. The time saved and quick action helps unleash growth and profits.
Your documentation today also increases your enterprise value tomorrow. Documentation is another X-Factor for your liquidity event. Buyers feel comfort knowing that business processes and systems are in writing.
For buyers, documentation is freedom. After the deal and you’re not around, the documentation is around. Your business runs without you, and the documentation provides continuity.
Can something as simple as documentation create business success?
The answer is a resounding “yes.”
Would you like an effective strategy for implementing documentation?
Ask team members to write down the “how” and “why” of their actions daily. Set up an internal wiki to hold the documentation.
Documenting in real-time adds little cost and time, but the reward is massive.
Do you know the one area your business “sucks” and what you can do about it?
Why Your Business Model Sucks (And What You Can Do About It)
Luck is not a business model – Anthony Bourdain.
No offense intended, but your business model sucks.
Most businesses have no business model. Customers buy when they buy. You have no insights or predictability as a result.
Read “Why Your Business Models Sucks And What You Need To Do About It.”
There is a better way.
A change in business model took my business, Embanet, from zero to hero for enterprise value.
The “holy grail” of business models has three components:
- Recurring revenue.
- Long-term exclusive contracts.
- Revenue sharing.
As you move up the business model “ladder,” each step becomes harder to have your clients agree.
That said, let’s look at the three components.
Recurring revenues ensure you and your clients know when they’ll buy and the amount. You now have clarity for cash flow projections. A recurring revenue model also helps increase client retention.
Speaking of client retention, it doesn’t get any better through long-term exclusive contracts. For example, my company Embanet had 10-year exclusive contracts.
And last but not least is revenue sharing. Through revenue sharing, you catapult growth and profits. As a result, your company’s value increases as you welcome business success.
You must do one thing to achieve all three components of the “holy grail” of business models.
You must find and solve a painful problem that clients are better off working with you than not. Chances are the current problem you’re solving isn’t painful enough.
Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. You’re business runs without you. Great news! You now have the time to find and solve a painful problem.
Why You Must Know Your Business Rembrandts To Unleash Business Success
Beginners are many; finishers are few – Stephen Covey.
You unleash business success when you know and broadcast your business Rembrandts.
What’s a Rembrandt?
A Rembrandt is an area that sets you apart from the competition. Your business is world-class in this one area. Most companies have at least three to five Rembrandts. In fact, many X-Factors are also Rembrandts.
Read “Want Financial Freedom? You Better Know These 9 M&A Business Owner Statistics.”
Please don’t make the fatal mistake and assume that your business is the same as the competition. Instead, let’s revisit the power of preparation for a moment.
In the Deep Wealth 9-step roadmap, each of the nine steps focuses on finding your Rembrandts. Preparing for a liquidity event that is ten years away gives your benefits today.
When you know your Rembrandts, you broadcast them to your clients and the marketplace. As a result, Rembrandts are effective at increasing client retention. And it’s the same Rembrandts that help you win new business.
Rembrandts help clients and prospects understand “how” and “why” you’re the best choice. By the way, your future buyer will know some of your Rembrandts but not disclose them. After all, disclosing Rembrandts to you increases enterprise value.
When you share your Rembrandts with buyers, you do two things. First, you let buyers know that you know the actual value of your business. The gig is up, and the value increases.
Second, buyers may not know all your Rembrandts. Disclosing your Rembrandts creates excitement and hope for a prosperous future. Once again, enterprise value increases.
Your mission is to find your Rembrandts and broadcast them to all stakeholders. Do this today, and you’ll reap massive business success tomorrow.
Conclusion
Seven strategies help you unleash business success today and increase enterprise value tomorrow. Implementing each of the seven strategies helps you achieve two things.
First, finding and removing those skeletons in the closet that can put you out of business. The same skeletons can either lose the deal for your exit or lower value.
Second, the combination of all seven strategies increases both growth and profits. You’re the benefactor of more business success and a higher enterprise value.
So, where do you start, and what do you do?
Your mission is to start with the first strategy of running your business without you. Then, once mastered, move on to the next strategy and stay with it until done.
Small but daily actions done each day add up to enormous success. In the process, you’ll also ensure you’re not on the losing side of the statistics. After all, 65% of businesses go out of business even after ten years. The cause of failure is not addressing one or more of the seven strategies.
Along the way, your actions can help prevent you from being one of the 90% of businesses with a failed deal. But, instead, you tilt the playing field to your advantage for your exit.
Here’s to you and your success!
Your Biggest Raving Fan,
Jeffrey Feldberg
Today, Feldberg's passion is helping you extract your deep wealth. The 90-day Deep Wealth Mastery program helps create a solid foundation for three areas: increasing profits to enterprise value and optimizing post-exit life. Deep Wealth Mastery offers strategies and insights drawn from Feldberg's rich experience. The strategies from the trenches get results. Jeffrey's vision is to increase the social fabric of society one entrepreneur at a time.
Learn more through https://iapdw.com/prosper
