Case Study: How to Sell/Pass on Your Business for the Price You Want & Guarantee its Future Success

This week I caught up with another of BGL’s rockin’ former clients who told me how BGL helped turn a time poor business owner into a time rich retiree.  This former client now spends more time with family and was only too happy to share his story with you…

Today.

John Morrison is spending time with his wife and adult children.

He is landscaping his garden.

He is catching up with friends.

He is teaching his sons the skills he learnt in business so that their businesses do well and are positioned for sale – when the time comes.   And all this is made possible because John succeeded where many business people fail.  John successfully sold his business.

Now you’re probably wondering, ‘just, how did he do it’?  What tricks did he know?  Or, what tools did he have at his disposal?  Well, the answer is threefold.

First, John recognised that, for him, running a business had a time span; he wasn’t going to take his business to the grave; he wanted to sell it and do it in a way which he describes as “mutually beneficial.”  What John means is… that while you want to sell your business for the highest possible dollar, you also know “you’ve worked hard for that amount of time and you want to see it progress to a new level” – you want to see it succeed beyond you.

Second, John wanted to flesh out his ideas with sound business practices specific to his needs.  He knew that he didn’t have ‘all the answers’ to reach his goal, and a sounding board was needed to help fill in the blanks.

Third, John needed to put an accountability structure in place that would help him follow through on the actions needed for his success.  John says, “I think we try to hide behind other people and don’t make those decisions”, so it was important that a business minded person step in and help me follow through.

Client Profile

Business Name:M & W Engine Services
Description:Specialise in building and machining all types of petrol engines.
Inception:1999
Former Owner: John Morrison
Coaching Start Date: 2005
Coach: Geoff Currie
Size: < 10
Location: Ballarat, VIC
Website:www.mwengineservices.com.au

The business solution that met John’s needs.

You may be thinking it’s a tall ask to meet all three of John’s criteria and, in today’s culture where everybody talks and few deliver, you’d be probably be right.  But for John, the success he achieved in selling his business stemmed from his work with a Business Coach, Geoff Currie.  John says…

“The strategies I was able to use – that [Geoff] taught me – I was able to achieve [my ideal] end at the right time… which is now.”

Rewind the clock.  What strategies did Geoff help him implement to get the sale?

“He was able to help me with different systems… customer relations and advertising thinking that I was able to change from old fashioned thinking to things that worked”, John said.

Geoff really “set the ball rolling”, John says, to the point where…“I was able to mentor and give the guy who I had in mind [to take over the business] a bit more responsibility”, he said.

So much responsibility, in fact, that “he was running the place and I was falling back to where people couldn’t see me”, John said.  But to get to this level in the selling process, John admits there was some hard work and over a long period.

“I think there’s a lot of foundations to be done and a lot of things to be put in place” … so if you’re looking to implement “a longer term plan [BGL coaching] will be the way to go.”

That’s “if you want to maximise what you’re doing in your business and learn about different ways of passing it on or helping others to get into to it in a mutually beneficial way”, John said.

And what about his ideas… how were John’s ideas for the selling the business received?

BGL business coaching is all about helping you achieve your ideal result.  John says that because they’re “your own goals, you take ownership of that and work towards that [goal]”.  And because you have someone whom you’re accountable to, John says “you actually have to do something; you can’t just talk away and then [say] ‘see you next week’.”

“The accountability can be confronting for some people – I found it hard but in the end rewarding”, John said.

“We were successful in the way we were able to do it”, he said.

So what about you?

Is it time you called 61 3 5338 1234 and arranged a Free Business Performance Assessement with a fellow business owner and coach to get the focus you need to prepare for your businesses exit?