This week, I interviewed Michelle Seiler Tucker, who is a Mergers and Acquisition Specialist and has bought and sold hundreds of businesses over the past 20 years. Michelle spoke about how she tells entrepreneurs to know their exit strategy when they start their company. The exit strategy at the forefront of the start-up is crucial because you set your company up correctly from the beginning to scale. Michelle breaks down the six areas that need to be addressed when building a company.
1. People. Employees are an essential part of any business. No company is successful unless it has good people. Every CEO tries to do it all and wear many hats, making it challenging to grow your company to a level where it can sell. You want to hire the right people you feel confident delegating tasks to, allowing you, the CEO, to focus on the strategy and vision. Take time and have a system to hire the right people and train them properly.
2. Product. How is your product different? Are you in a particular niche? Know what makes you different. You need always to be innovating.
3. Processes. What systems do you have in place? It would help if you had distinct processes for all areas of your business. Policy and procedures handbooks should be created and shared with all employees.
4. Proprietary. What makes your company have more value? Does it have a patent, trademark, or intellectual property? Does your company have a recognizable brand? Do you have a long term contract? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then your company’s value can be more.
5. Patrons. These are your loyal clients. How many do you have? Have you created a community? How do you communicate with them? You should foster a strong relationship with your customers.
6. Profits. Are you operating at the highest profit margin for your industry? You can not be profitable unless the five other Ps are in place and working.
If you concentrate on these Six P’s, you will set up and grow your company to Exit Rich. Go to “exitrichbook.com” to pre-order the Exit Rich book and get some free perks.