10 Resolutions That Will Boost the Value of Your Company
Finally, 2020 is in the books.
Good riddance.
If your goal is to build a more valuable company in 2021, here are some New Year’s
resolutions to consider:
1. Stop chasing revenue. A bigger company is not necessarily a more valuable
one if the extra sales come from products and services that are too reliant on
you to deliver them.
2. Start surveying your customers using the Net Promoter Score
methodology. It’s a fast and easy way for your customers to give you
feedback, and it’s predictive of your company’s growth in the future.
3. Sell less stuff to more people. The most valuable companies have a
defendable niche selling a few differentiated products and services to many
customers. The least valuable businesses sell lots of undifferentiated
products and services to a concentrated group of buyers.
4. Drop the products or services that depend on you. . If you offer something
that needs you to produce or sell it, consider dropping it from your offerings.
Services and products that require you suck up your time and cash and don’t
contribute significantly to your business’s value.
5. Collect more money up front. Turn a negative cash flow cycle into a
positive one and you boost your business’s value and lessen your stress
load.
6. Create more recurring revenue. Predictable sales from subscriptions or
recurring contracts mean less stress in the short term and a more valuable
business over the long run.
7. Be different. Refine your marketing strategy to emphasize the point of
differentiation that customers value. Be relentless in highlighting this
advantage.
8. Find a backup supplier for your most critical raw materials Consider
placing a small order to establish a commercial relationship and diversify the
sources of your most-difficult-to-find materials.
9. Teach them to fish. Answer every employee question of you with “What
would you do if you owned the business?” Your goal should be to cultivate
employees who think like owners so they can start answering their own
questions without coming to you.
10. Create an instruction manual. Document your most important processes
so your employees can do their work independently.
Here’s to building a more valuable company in 2021!
Much is made of analyzing the personality traits of successful entrepreneurs.
Some appear outgoing. Others are introverts. Some lean right, others left. Some are
flashy. Others are monk-like with their money.
Their diversity can lead one to the conclusion that there are no common
personality traits among successful founders.
Rather than trying to understand who they are, let’s look at what they do.
We’ve had the opportunity to help many businesses improve their value, with
some going on to exit their business for seven, eight, or even nine figures. As such,
we have a unique vantage point from which to observe the owners who achieve the
most financial success. This point of view has allowed us to observe three things
the most successful owners do differently:
1. They read business books.
Our most successful customers are voracious consumers of business content.
When a new business book hits the bestseller list, most have either read it or
summarized its central point.
It’s not just the printed word. Many get information through audio books, webinars,
or podcasts, others via YouTube.
The actual medium is less important to these successful founders. What’s
consistent is their continuous learning pattern and the desire to leverage other
people’s smart ideas and put them to work in their own company.
2. They join masterminds.
In the absence of having a board of directors or a boss, successful founders often
use a peer board to hold themselves accountable and gain an outside perspective
when they’re stuck.
Initially popularized by Napoleon Hill in his class book, Think & Grow Rich, a
mastermind gathers a small group of peers to act as one another’s board. Often led
by a chair, these groups become lifelines for owners as they navigate big decisions
in their businesses and personal lives.
3. They ask questions.
The character trait that makes successful entrepreneurs inclined to read business
books and join peer groups is their natural curiosity. They have an unquenchable
thirst for knowledge. No matter how successful, they never get full.
You may be surprised not to see the stereotypical attributes of successful
entrepreneurs. Many founders are also action oriented, competitive, tenacious,
etc., but all those common personality traits are who they are. Our interest is what
they do.
Actions are the measure of a person. Take a look at what a founder does to stay
sharp, and you’ll see a consistent pattern among the most successful
entrepreneurs you know.
If the pandemic has forced you back into the weeds of your business, you’re not
alone. Many owners are again doing tasks they haven’t done in years because they
have had to lay off front-line staff or their employees have fallen ill or are caring for
someone in need.
Being back in the middle of things is neither healthy for you nor your business long
term. Personally, it’s a recipe for burnout, and professionally, your business will be
less valuable with you doing all the work.
Now is an excellent opportunity to retool your company so that it can start running
without you again. These three steps should help:
Step 1: Sell less stuff to more people.
Most companies become too dependent on their owner because they offer
too many products and services. With such a full breadth of offerings, it’s
hard to find and train employees that can deliver. The secret is to pick
something that makes you unique and focus on finding more customers, not
more things to sell.
Take Gabriela Isturiz as an example. She cofounded Bellefield Systems, a
company offering a timekeeping application for lawyers. Over the next seven
years, Bellefield grew to 45 employees. Although many businesses bill by the
hour, Isturiz focused exclusively on timekeeping for lawyers, which is one of
the reasons she was able to integrate with 32 practice management
platforms used by lawyers—a big reason Bellefield's product was so sticky. It
worked out well for Isturiz as she was growing 50% a year with EBITDA
margins of more than 25% when she sold her company in 2019.
Step 2: Systemize it.
Next, focus on creating systems and procedures for employees to follow. For
example, Nashville-based Bryan Clayton built Peachtree, a landscaping
business. Most lawn care companies are mom-and-pop operations, but
Clayton built Peachtree up to 150 employees before he sold it to LUSA for a
seven-figure windfall.
What made Peachtree so unique? Clayton focused on documenting his
processes. For example, one of his customers was a McDonald’s franchisee
who owned 40 locations. He was frustrated by how many people discarded
cigarette butts in his drive-through, so Clayton offered to clear the debris
from the lanes as part of his lawn care process. He then trained his
employees on the drive-through clean-up process he had created so it was
followed across all 40 of the customer’s locations.
Step 3: Outsource it.
Next, consider outsourcing what you’re not very good at. For example, David
Lekach started Dream Water, a natural sleep aid bottled in a five-ounce shot
similar to the famous 5-Hour Energy Drink.
Lekach built Dream Water to almost $10 million in annual revenue
before selling it to Harvest One, a cannabis company, for $34.5 million in
cash and Harvest One stock. Lekach saw his role as “selling Dream Water, not
making it.” That meant he outsourced the manufacturing, packaging, and
distribution of Dream Water to a co-packer, ensuring Lekach and his team
could focus on selling Dream Water.
It’s natural for a leader to step in during a crisis, but that’s not sustainable for the
long term. Pull yourself out of the doing, and you’ll build a valuable company for the
long term that’s a lot less stressful to run along the way.
3 Ways To Make Your Company More Valuable Than Your Industry Peers
Have you ever wondered what determines the value of your business?
Perhaps you’ve heard an industry rule of thumb and assumed that your company will be
worth about the same as a similar size company in your industry. However, when we take a
look at the data provided by The Value Builder System™, we’ve found there are eight factors
that drive the value of your business, and they are all potentially more important than the
industry you’re in.
Not convinced? Let’s look at Jill Nelson, who recently sold a majority interest in her $11
million telephone answering service, Ruby Receptionists, for $38.8 million.
That’s a lot of money for answering the phone on behalf of independent lawyers,
contractors and plumbers across America.
To give you a sense of how high that valuation is, let’s look at some comparison data. At
Value Builder, we’ve worked with more than 30,000 businesses in the last five years. Our
clients start by completing their Value Builder questionnaire, which covers 35 questions that
allow us to place an estimate of value on a company. The average value for companies
starting with us is 3.6 times pre-tax profit and those who graduate our program with a Value
Builder Score of 80+ (out of a possible 100) are getting an average of 6.3 times pre-tax profit.
When we isolate the administrative support industry that Ruby Receptionists operates in,
the average multiple offered for these companies over the last five years is just 1.8 times
pre-tax profit.
Nelson, by contrast, sold the majority interest in Ruby Receptionists for more than 3 times
revenue.
There were three factors that made Nelson’s business much more valuable than her industry
peers, and they are the same things you can focus on to drive up the value of your company:
1. Cultivate Your Point Of Differentiation
Acquirers do not buy what they could easily build themselves. If your main competitive
advantage is price, an acquirer will rightly conclude they can simply set up shop as a
competitor and win most of your price sensitive customers away by offering a temporary
discount.
In the case of Ruby Receptionists, Nelson invested heavily in a technology that ensured that
no matter when a client received a phone call, her technology would route that call to an
available receptionist. Nelson’s competitors were mostly low-tech mom and pop businesses
who often missed calls when there was a sudden surge of callers. Nelson’s technology could
handle client surges because of the unique routing technology she had built that transferred
calls efficiently across her network of receptionists.
Nelson’s acquirer, a private equity company called Updata Partners, saw the potential of
applying Nelson’s call-routing technology to other businesses they owned and were
considering investing in.
2. Recurring Revenue
Acquirers want to know how your business will perform after they buy it. Nothing gives
them more confidence that your business will continue to thrive post sale than recurring
revenue from subscriptions or service contracts.
In Nelson’s case, Ruby Receptionists billed its customers through recurring contracts—
perfect for making a buyer confident that her company has staying power.
3. Customer Diversification
In addition to having customers pay on recurring contracts, the most valuable businesses
have lots of little customers rather than one or two biggies. Most acquirers will balk if any
one of your customers represents more than 15% of your revenue.
At the time of the acquisition, Ruby Receptionists had 6,000 customers paying an average of
just a few hundred dollars per month. Nelson could lose a client or two each month without
skipping a beat, which is ideal for reassuring a hesitant buyer that your company’s revenue
stream is bulletproof.
Nelson built a valuable company in a relatively unexciting, low-tech industry, proving that
how you run your business is more important than the industry you’re in.
6 little things that make a big difference to the value of your company
With the Sochi Olympic Games taking place this month, it is interesting to reflect
back on some of the big events of the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver.
In the Men’s Downhill race at Whistler, for example, the winning time of 1:54:31
was posted by Didier Défago of Switzerland. The time among medalists was the
closest in Olympic history, and while Mario Scheiber of Austria posted a time of
1:54:52 – just two tenths of a second slower than Défago – he finished out of the
medals in fourth place.
In ski racing, one fifth of a second can be lost in the tiniest of miscalculations.
And when it comes to selling your business, markets can be equally cruel. Get
everything right, and you can successfully sell your business for a premium.
Misjudge a couple of minor details and a buyer can walk, leaving you with
nothing.
Here is a list of six little details to get right before you put your business on the
market:
1. Find your lease. If you rent space, you may be required to notify your
landlord if you intend to sell your company. Read through the fine print
and ensure you’re not scrambling at the last minute to seek permission
from your landlord to sell.
2. Professionalize your books. Consider having audited financial statements
prepared to give a buyer confidence in your bookkeeping.
3. Stop using your company as an ATM. Many business owners run trips
and other perks through their business, but if you’re planning to sell, these
treats will artificially depress your earnings, which will reduce the value of
your company in the eyes of a buyer by much more than the value of the
perks.
4. Protect your gross margin. Oftentimes, when leading up to being listed for
sale, companies grow by chasing low-margin business. You tell yourself
you need top-line growth, but when an acquirer sees your growth has
come at the expense of your gross margin, she will question your pricing
authority and assume your journey to the bottom of the commoditization
heap has begun.
5. If you’re lucky enough to have formal contracts with your customers, make
sure your customer contracts include a “survivor clause” stipulating that
the obligations of the contract “survive” the change of ownership of your
company. That way, your customers can’t use the sale of your company to
wiggle out of their commitments to your business. Have a lawyer paper
the language to ensure it has teeth in your jurisdiction.
6. Get your Value Builder Score. Take 13 minutes to answer the Value
Builder questionnaire now. You’ll see how you performed on the eight key
drivers of company value and you can identify any gaps you need to fill
before taking your business to market.
Like competing in the Olympics, selling a business can be an all-or-nothing affair.
Get it right and you will walk away a winner. Fumble your preparation, and you
could end up out of the medals.
How much did your home increase in value last year? Depending on where you live,
it may have gone up by 5 - 10% or more.
How much did your stock portfolio increase over the last 12 months? By way of a
benchmark, The Dow Jones Industrial Average has increased by around 13% in the
last year. Did your portfolio do as well?
Now consider what portion of your wealth is tied to the stock or housing market,
and compare that to the equity you have tied up in your business. If you’re like most
owners, the majority of your wealth is tied up in your company. Increasing the value
of your largest asset can have a much faster impact on your overall financial picture
than a bump in the stock market or the value of your home.
Let us introduce you to a statistically proven way to increase the value of your
company by as much as 71%. Through an analysis of 6,955 businesses, we’ve
discovered that companies that achieve a Value Builder Score of 80+ out of a
possible 100 receive offers to buy their business that are 71% higher than what the
average company receives.
How long would it take your stock portfolio or home to go up by 71%? Years –
maybe even decades. Get your Value Builder Score now and you will be able to track
your overall score along with your performance on the eight key drivers of company
value. Like a pilot working his instrument panel, you can quickly zero in on which of
the eight drivers is dragging down your value the most and then take corrective
action.
Your overall Value Builder Score is derived from your performance on the eight
attributes that drive the value of your company:
1. Financial Performance: your history of producing revenue and profit
combined with the professionalism of your record keeping.
2. Growth Potential: your likelihood to grow your business in the future and at
what rate.
3. The Switzerland Structure: how dependent your business is on any one
employee, customer or supplier.
4. The Valuation Teeter Totter: whether your business is a cash suck or a cash
spigot.
5. The Hierarchy of Recurring Revenue: the proportion and quality of
automatic, annuity-based revenue you collect each month.
6. The Monopoly Control: how well differentiated your business is from
competitors in your industry.
7. Customer Satisfaction: the likelihood that your customers will re-purchase
and also refer you.
8. Hub & Spoke: how your business would perform if you were unexpectedly
unable to work for a period of three months.
To find out how you’re performing on the eight key drivers of company value and
start your journey to increasing the value of your largest asset, get your Value
Builder Score now: Value BuilderScore now:
John McCann sold The Bolt Supply House to Lawson Products (NASDAQ: LAWS) at
the end of 2017.
McCann’s strategy involved learning from the acquirers who knocked on his door.
He invited would-be buyers into The Bolt Supply House and listened to what they
had to say. He was not committed to selling, but instead wanted to know what they
liked and what concerned them about his company.
One giant European conglomerate, for example, approached McCann about selling,
but after a thorough evaluation, they backed out of a deal, worried about McCann’s
central distribution system.
McCann thanked them for their time and set to work turning his distribution system
into a masterpiece. Eventually, Lawson cited this as one of the many things that
attracted them to The Bolt Supply House.
When it finally came time to sell, McCann commanded a premium, arguing that he
had built a world-class company he knew would be a strategic gem for a lot of
businesses. He ended up getting five competing offers for The Bolt Supply House
and eventually sold to Lawson.
When a big sophisticated acquirer approaches you about selling, the temptation is
to decline a meeting if you’re not ready to sell, but hearing what they have to say can
be a great way to get some superb consulting, for free. The investment bankers and
corporate development executives who lead acquisitions for big acquirers are often
some of the smartest, most strategic executives in your industry and—provided you
don’t get sucked into a prop deal—hearing how they view your business can be an
inexpensive way to improve the value of your company.
If you’re like most owners, you aspire to have the freedom that comes from owning
your own business:
• The freedom to decide how you spend your time
• The freedom to choose whom to work with and to avoid people who drain
your energy
• The freedom to make as much money as you deserve
This desire for freedom often leads owners to aspire for a bigger business, which
they think will give them what they want. Unfortunately, most owners who strive for
more revenue or profit as their primary goal often have:
• Less time because it’s spent managing an ever-expanding set of offerings.
• Less freedom because complexity inevitably leads to conflict.
• Less money because any available cash is reinvested in growth.
So, in many ways, growing a larger business gets you further from your ultimate
goal of freedom.
Instead of thinking of your business as something to push harder and faster, there’s
an alternative that may get you closer to what you want. Think of your business as a
child, and your role is to guide her into becoming an independent, thriving adult.
If your goal is to create a business that can thrive without you, you will start to
make different decisions. That demanding customer who wants your attention on
their project no longer looks so attractive. That exciting new product that’s going to
require you to sell no longer looks worth it.
By focusing on the role of parent rather than business driver, the demands on your
time lessen as your employees pick up more of the load. You may also find your
business selling more as you build a team of salespeople rather than relying only
on yourself to drive the top line. The ultimate irony is that your business may end
up being more valuable than a larger peer where the owner is still mostly
responsible for sales.
Acquirers want businesses that will survive the loss of their owner. In many cases,
they will pay a premium for companies where the owner is in the background.
Consider the case of Damian James, who sold his network of mobile podiatry clinics
generating $11 million in revenue for $13.2 million. He credits much of the sale to
the fact that he was no longer running the businesses day to day and had reduced
his time commitment to just one or two days per week.
David Hauser started Grasshopper, an Internet-based phone system he built to $30
million in annual revenue before he sold it to Citrix for $165 million in cash and $8.6
million in stock. Hauser was down to working just one day per week at the time of
the sale of his company.
Growing revenue and profits will be valuable to an acquirer, but if you make them
your only goal, you may find yourself with less of what you want. Treat your
business like a child who needs guidance to become a thriving adult, and revenue,
profits, and ultimate value will come as a by-product.
Why You Should Exit While You’re Ahead–A Cautionary Tale
The very best time to sell your business is when someone wants to buy it. While it can be tempting
to continue to grow your business forever – particularly when things are going well -- that decision
comes with a significant downside.
Take a look at the story of Rand Fishkin who started his entrepreneurial journey when he joined his
mother’s marketing agency as a partner:
When Fishkin realized how much his Mom’s customers were struggling to get Google to display
their company in a search, he immersed himself in the emerging field of Search Engine
Optimization (SEO).
He began writing a blog called SEO Moz, which led to an SEO consulting and software company. By
2007, Moz was generating revenue of $850,000 a year when Fishkin decided to drop consulting to
become solely a software business.
The company began to grow 100% per year and by 2010, Moz was generating around $650,000 in
revenue each month, attracting the attention of Brian Halligan, co-founder of marketing software
giant HubSpot.
HubSpot wanted to buy Moz and was offering $25 million of cash and HubSpot stock – an offer
almost five times Moz’s $5.7 million of revenue in its last complete financial year.
But Fishkin wasn’t satisfied. He believed a fast growth Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company was
worth four times future revenue and was confident Moz would hit $10 million by the end of that
year.
Fishkin counter offered, saying he would be willing to accept $40 million. HubSpot declined.
New Plans Ahead
Instead of selling Moz, Fishkin raised a round of venture capital and started to diversify away from
SEO tools into a broader set of marketing offerings. The further Moz veered away from its core in
SEO, the more money his business began to lose.
By 2014, Moz was in full crisis mode, and Fishkin had begun suffering from a bout of depression.
He decided to step down as CEO, describing his resignation as a “lot of sadness, a heap of regrets
and a smattering of resentment.”
Fishkin became a minority shareholder in a company he no longer controlled where the venture
capitalists had preferred rights in a liquidity event.
A Lesson Learned
In the ensuing years since turning down Halligan’s offer, HubSpot went public on the New York
Stock Exchange and had been worth nearly 20 times as much.
Fishkin revealed that today, his liquid net worth is $800,000 – much of which he was about to
spend on elder care for his grandparents. The Moz stock he holds may or may not have value after
the venture capitalist get their preferred return. At the same time, Fishkin estimated HubSpot’s
offer of $25 million in cash and HubSpot stock would now be worth more than $100 million (based
on the increased value of HubSpot’s stock).
Fishkin’s tale is a cautionary reminder why the best time to sell your company is when someone
wants to buy it – a story that is shared in his book Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to
the Startup World.
What if an offer was made for your business today? Would you be ready to sell? Would you regret if
you said no?
The Most Critical Factor in Achieving Your Goals May Surprise You
As we roll into the fourth quarter of the year, you may be starting to consider your
business goals for next year.
Given how 2020 has gone, maybe your primary ambition is to survive in 2021.
Perhaps you’re going to create a recurring revenue stream or finally hire that
general manager. Or maybe you’ve decided to start preparing for an exit.
Whatever your goals are, the most important thing you can do now is write down
your plan to achieve them.
A Revealing Study
This point was driven home recently by a study published in the British Journal of
Health Psychology. The project was designed to see what impact stimuli would have
on participants’ level of exercise. Researchers divided a random sample of
participants into three groups.
For the first group, the researchers asked the participants to track how frequently
they exercised. They were told to read a passage of an unrelated book before
beginning.
For the second group, researchers wanted to measure the impact that motivation
would have on their exercise levels. The second group was also asked to track their
activity levels and were then told to read a book’s motivational passage that
outlined the benefits of exercise for maintaining a healthy weight.
The third group was asked to read the same motivational excerpt as the second
group but had the additional task of writing down their exercise goals for the
coming week.
The Results
When the researchers sat down to analyze the results, they were surprised to find
that among the motivated group (group 2), just 35% exercised once per week. That
was slightly less exercise than group 1 (36%) even though they were motivated to
work out.
When the researchers analyzed the third group’s exercise log, they were stunned to
find that 91% of them had worked out. The only difference between groups 2 and 3
was that the third group was asked to write down their goals. That simple task
seems to have almost tripled their likelihood to succeed.
The researchers concluded that motivation alone has virtually no impact on our
actions. Instead, it is motivation coupled with a written action plan of how you’re going
to achieve your goals that has the most significant impact on your results.
Food for thought as you start thinking about making 2021 your best year yet.
The value of your business comes down to a single equation: what multiple of your profit is
an acquirer willing to pay for your company?
profit × multiple = value
Most owners believe the best way to improve the value of their company is to make more
profit – so, they find ways to sell more and more. As experts in their industry, it’s natural that
customers want to personally engage with them, which means spending more time on the
phones, on the road and face-to-face to increase sales.
With this model, a company can slightly grow, but the owner’s life becomes much more
difficult: customers demand more time and service, employees begin to burn out, and soon
it feels like there are not enough hours in the day. Revenue flat lines, health can suffer and
relationships get strained – all from working too much. Does this feel familiar?
If you’re spending too much time and effort on increasing your profit, you could find yourself
diminishing the overall value of your business. The solution? Focus on driving your multiple
(the other number in the equation above). Driving your multiple will ultimately help you grow
your company value, improve your profit and redeem your freedom.
What Drives Your Multiple
Differentiated Market Position
Acquirers only buy what they could not easily create, so expect to be paid more if you have
close to a monopoly on what you sell and/or are one of the few companies who have been
licensed to provide the specific product or service in your market.
Lots of Runway
Most founders think market share is something to strive for, but in the eyes of an acquirer, it
can decrease the value of your business because you’ve already sopped up most of the
opportunity.
Recurring Revenue
An acquirer is going to want to know how your business will do once you leave – recurring
revenue assures them that there will still be a business once the founder hits eject.
Financials
The size and profitability of your company will matter to investors. So will the quality of your
bookkeeping.
The You Factor
The most valuable businesses can thrive without their owners. The inverse is also true
because the most valuable businesses are masters of independence.
3 Things to Consider When You Hit “The Freedom Point”
When was the last time you calculated the percentage of your net worth tied to
your company’s value?
When you started your business, its value was probably negligible. Unless you
purchased or inherited your company, it wasn’t worth much when you opened your
doors, but over time, the proportion of your assets tied to your business may have
crept up.
Let’s imagine a hypothetical business owner named Tim, who starts his company at
age 30. He has a little bit of equity in his first home and a small retirement fund.
When he starts his business, it’s worthless, so it doesn’t yet factor into Tim’s net
worth calculation.
By the age of 50, Tim has built up $600,000 worth of equity in his home, his
retirement nest egg has grown to $400,000, and his business has blossomed and is
now worth $4,000,000. Tim’s company has crept up to represent 80% of his net
worth.
Tim knows the first rule of investing is to diversify, which he is careful to do with his
retirement account. Still, he has failed to achieve overall diversity given the success
of his business.
What’s more, he may have unknowingly passed something called “The Freedom
Point,” which is when the net proceeds (i.e., after taxes and expenses) of selling his
business would garner enough money for him to live comfortably for the rest of his
life. Your lifestyle determines your Freedom Point, but when you pass it, it’s worth
considering the risk you’re taking.
If this pandemic has taught us anything, it is that nothing is for sure, and a thriving
business one day can turn into a struggling company overnight. When your
business makes up most of your net worth and selling it would garner enough
money to retire, there’s no financial reason to continue owning your business. You
may enjoy the challenge, the social interactions, and the creative process of
building a business, but keeping it may be unnecessarily risky.
When you’ve crested the Freedom Point and want to diversity—but still don’t want
to retire—you have some options:
• Sell a Minority Stake: In a minority recapitalization, you sell less than half of
your shares. Often sold to a financial investor such as a private equity group,
a minority recapitalization allows you to diversify your net worth while
continuing to control your business.
• Sell a Majority Stake: In a majority recapitalization, you sell more than half
of your shares to an investor who will most likely ask you to continue to run
your business for many years to come. You get to diversity your wealth, keep
some equity in your business for when the investor sells, and continue to run
your company.
• Earn-Out: When you sell your company, you’ll likely have to agree to a
transition period of sorts. One of the most popular is called an earn-out,
where you agree to continue to run your company as a division of your
acquirer’s business for a specified period of time. Your earn-out may be as
little as a year or as long as seven, but the average is three years. Therefore,
if you’re past the Freedom Point and can see yourself wanting to step down
in the next three to five years, an earn-out may be worth considering.
Building a successful business is rewarding, but when your personal balance sheet
gets out of whack, it may be worth considering the risk you’re shouldering and the
options you have for sharing some of it.