Exit or Growth header

There are only two broad stages that a business is in at any point in time - Exit or Growth.

For the sake of your family and your business you need to be in control of your Growth and your Exit.

Very few small businesses survive beyond 5 years and of those that do 90% are Unsellable* and therefore virtually Valueless.

If your business depends on you, you don’t own a business — you have a job. And it’s the worst job in the world because you’re working for a lunatic!” - Michael E. Gerber, The E-Myth

With many business owners having 80 to 90 percent of their financial assets based in their business*, the idea of selling to retire is a myth because their business has not been made saleable.

To ensure your business is saleable and for its maximum value, first you need to demonstrate consistant growth and secondly you need to be the most deirable business in your industry.

We provide a highly structured step by step Growth and Value Enhancement process is called Exitology ™ to achieve both Business Happiness™ and your Ultimate PayDay™.

Business Happiness ™

What is Business Happiness™? It is a concept developed by Senior Exitologist ™, Jonathan Lucas, that is the core purpose behind Exitology™. You achieve Business Happiness™ when you can answer yes to the question; Is my business?


  1. Profitable - goes without saying except being continuously profitable is much harder than it looks to the inexperienced. It is highly dependant on the strategic planning that has been undertaken particularly those elements of the business model; customer value proposition, profit formula, key resources and key processes.

  2. Engaging - this applies equally to yourself and your family, your employees, your customers, your stakeholders, and the community. So, what seems a simple concept on the surface is something quite difficult to achieve. How do you keep all stakeholders fully engaged with the business? The more thoroughly engaged you and your employees, in particular, remain with the business the better your chances are of Business Happiness

  3. Purposeful - What legacy do you want your business to leave behind? What do you want your business to be known for? This gets back to your initial purpose for starting the business and your values. There is no better feeling for a business owner than to know that his business is fulfilling a noble purpose for all its stakeholders.

  4. Saleable - What is the point of all the effort you put into your business if there is no reward at that time when you decide to exit? Or what if someone notices your business and is interested in offering the right amount of money for it and you are not prepared for sale, so they walk away? Or if one of the five D’s (death, disability, divorce, distress and, disagreement) strike and force an exit that you are not prepared for?

  5. Automated - Please re-read the quote by Michael Gerber at the beginning of this page. Is this you? If you want to move from having a job where the boss is a lunatic, you need to automate your business. You need to develop systems and processes that are like a set of instructions on how the business can run without you. An accountability system is paramount if you want to automate. Every member of the firm including you will have to be accountable for the daily, weekly, monthly objectives and 90-day action plans. Delegation is also an important skill to develop here because you can’t do it all yourself. Delegation will make your employees feel more valued which in turn will increase the level of engagement and productivity from your employees.

  6. Work/Life Harmonised - So many consultants and coaches preach about work/life balance. For the business owner, I don’t believe that there is ever a balance. Their business is their life. According to the Oxford dictionary balance means “a situation in which different elements are equal or in the correct proportions” whereas harmony means “the state of being in agreement or concord”. When you own your own business, I believe you just can’t find a work/life situation in which business demands and family demands are equal or in the correct proportions. I do think that you can and must find a state of agreement or concord between your business demands and your family demands.

EXITOLOGY ™

What is Exitology ™? Exitology ™ is a highly structured 5 step Growth and Value enhancement process that provides business owners with Business Happiness ™ and their ULTIMATE PayDay ™.


High Level Goals

STEP 1
ANALYSE

This step will analyse the macro environment, the industry competitive environment, SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), competitive advantages, the business model, purpose, values, vision, mission, and the strategic plan. It should never be missed. You have to know where you are in the business cycle and where you are headed. This step provides that information and is the bedrock of going forward.

Improving Profit and Cash Flow

STEP 2
DE-RISK

This is where we apply risk strategies to protect the businesses baseline value. The priority is to mitigate, personal, financial, and business risk. De-risking is part of being prepared for an exit at all times. Here we can start to identify what key resources and key processes that are missing and placing the business at risk.







Creating a Good Strategy

Step 3
ENHANCE

This is the step where we fully automate and systemise the business to create an efficient, compliant, scaleable and high-performance business. Daily, weekly, monthly objectives and 90-day action plans are an essential part of the process as they provide accountability. Once the business is more systemised delegation will be enhanced to release the owner from the “struggle cycle” so that they can focus on growing or scaling the business.



Customer Strategies

STEP 4
MONITOR

A significant adjunct to delegation and accountability. The Balanced Score Card is a measurement tool that gives business owners the feedback and accountability necessary for them to get out of the “me mentality” through delegation. It is also an outstanding system of communication of the vision, mission and strategy developed in step 1.







Innovation and Systems

STEP 5
EXIT or GROWTH

This is a crucial step because it continually answers the question of whether to start a controlled exit or continue to keep controlling and enhancing growth. If the decision is to exit the business will follow the ValueMax ™ program which will more completely focus on the drivers of value that have not been fully addressed to date. If the decision is to continue with growth the business will go back to a review of step 1, step 2 and step 3.

7 Simple Truths of Exit

  1. All business owners exit their business because they are human.
  2. All businesses have at least some value that can be sold or transferred to someone else.
  3. Preparing for exit significantly increases the value that could be realised.
  4. Preparing for exit significantly increases the probability of a successful exit.
  5. Businesses built for exit [and therefore maximum value] are better run, more profitable and less stressful.
  6. Planning for exit includes planning your personal finances and 'life-after' plan, which results in improved personal wealth and happiness.
  7. The value of a business can, in some cases, be well over 80% of the business owner's personal wealth.

7 Simply Truths of Growth

  1. If a business doesn’t know where it’s going, it’s hard to know how to get there’. Purpose, Vision, Mission and Values are paramount.
  2. Customers are the key to Business growth.
  3. The business must have a kick ass Business Model at the core of its strategy.
  4. Cash flow is the life blood of a growing business.
  5. You need the right people on the bus and in the right seats on the bus.
  6. Businesses that can’t implement their strategy stagnate or fail.
  7. Business that apply the power of one grow.

Feel free to call 0419 002 742 today for an obligation free chat with our Senior Exitologist™ Jonathan Lucas.

Nothing to lose ..... everything to gain.

Certified Exit Planning Advisor and MAUS Certified Business Advisor