Then it’s almost certain that your company’s value and its chances of survival are reducing. It’s a fact of life for most businesses that if you think you’re standing still you’re really going backwards.
Too often I meet owners who have operated in their comfort zone for years, only to find that when they think about selling up and retiring the value of their business is much less than they had hoped.
It’s been really refreshing in recent weeks to work with the owners of two quite different businesses, both at or beyond “retirement age” but wanting advice about preparing their businesses for sale in two or three years time and, more importantly, being prepared to act on it.
I can’t think of a business that’s immune to the passage of time. Consider what happened to the British motorcycle industry in the 1960s; think about the way that Nokia have lost ground in the mobile phone sector in recent times.
I was fortunate to be a development manager in the printing industry in the 1980s and 90s and to have the opportunities to take commercial advantage of advances that at the time were revolutionary but which today we take for granted – digital origination, laser and ink jet printing, UV curing inks. Whilst some, not least the four print unions, would have preferred to stay with paste up and hot metal type, we embraced the advances and achieved massive growth.
In 11 years of providing help and advice to companies across the B2B community I’ve worked with many who have equally taken advantage of advances in technology, and I’ve helped them to gain maximum commercial benefit.
My training as a scientist taught me how to solve product and process problems, my experience as a managing director taught me the value of applying technical advances to increase profits. Today I get a buzz from putting all that experience to use to help owners grow their businesses and achieve maximum profits.
