How Do I Present To An Investor?

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Many people are surprised that most business owners have never had to present their business before.  Whether it be to a financing source (e.g. investor or banker), their team, or to anyone else.  We have found that most owners simply put their heads down and grind out at the work of their business.

If you’re around long enough, at some point you’re going to be faced with the situation where you have to present your company to an outsider.  Heck, it may even be a potential buyer of your business.  Do you really want your first real presentation to be to the person who might buy your business?

We spent time on tonight’s show going through different things to focus on if you want to knock that presentation out of the park.  The best starting point is our 7 Keys to Success in terms of what things you should cover (with the 7th Key being the actual presentation itself).  A couple of particularly important:

  • Organization (key #4): be sure to include your team in these presentations. One fo the things that gives potential investors or buyers comfort is to see how there is a good team behind the owner.
  • Marketing (key #3): in this area you want to focus and understand your competition and your customers (as well as potential customers and target markets)
  • Profit Plan (key #2): this has to do with your numbers. On this item in particular it’s key that the owner has familiarity with, and preferably command of, the financials.  The banker/investor/buyer of the business is betting on you as the owner and not your CPA or someone else who you might currently be the one heading up your numbers.

When it comes down to it, a good presentation can make up for a lot of other shortcomings in your business.  Even if you don’t have answers to some tough questions, the fact that you can address those questions and explain why you don’t have good answers right now builds confidence in those folks who are grading your presentation.  But in this case instead of gold stars you’ll be getting investments.

 

People, Companies and Resources We Mentioned in the Show

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How Do I Know It’s Time To Sell My Business?

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Several of our clients have recently been approached by folks who are expressing an interest in perhaps acquiring their company.  We have found this scenario happens to most business owners at some point.  The question is, how do you know it’s time to sell your business?  Just because some stranger reaches out to you to chat doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a sign that you should sell.

There are several questions we have our clients answer to help them figure out how to know when they are ready to sell.  Some revolve around financial issues while some are more philosophical.  A quick sampling of questions we address in this show include:

  • How much money are we currently taking out of the business (just a hint, you need to include more than just your salary)
  • How much money do we need to walk away?
  • What will I do next?
  • What about other family members involved in the business?

If you’ve recently been approached by a potential suitor, this show is definitely for you.  If you haven’t been approached yet, chances are you soon will and the sooner you start to get answers to some of these questions the better prepared you’ll be to know when is the right time to sell your business.

 

People, Companies and Resources We Mentioned in the Show

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How Do I Create More Transparency In My Business?

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There is a relatively recent trend in business, and in other parts of life for that matter, as it relates to transparency. Particularly as it relates to how to create more of it in the business. Seems like a simple enough question, but it’s not easy to do for most business owners. Why?

Many of the current business owners were brought up in times where subordinates didn’t ask questions or challenge authority. That mentality has certainly changed. People these days ask lots of questions, even ones that might seem inappropriate. So are they trying to be nosy or helpful or somewhere in between?

In tonight’s show we talk about some of the things you can do to provide more transparency and gave several examples of our business coaching clients who have both done a good and not so good job on the transparency front. The biggest part of this has to do with creating trust within the organization. Building trust starts with getting up in front of your team and explaining some of the “whys” in your business and how you make decisions.

People, Companies and Resources We Mentioned in the Show

  • International Talk Like A Pirate Day (https://www.awarenessdays.com/awareness-days-calendar/international-talk-like-a-pirate-day-2018/)
  • Steve The Pirate from Dodgeball the movie (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0876138/)
  • Tales from the Crypt (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096708/)
  • Rotary International (https://www.rotary.org)

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How Do I Add Value As A Professional Service Provider?

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What’s it take to find good professional advisors?  Just about every small business owner has several advisors who are part of their business.  The most common include CPAs, attorneys, insurance agents, financial advisors, bankers, IT services providers, and marketing folks.  Not all of these folks are created equally.

In fact, we have found that in our experience as small business owners and advisors to hundreds of small business owners, the vast majority of these small business service providers leave much to be desired.  In fact, it’s so rare that we’ve heard small business owners sing the praises of any of their service providers that we can count on one hand the number of times this has happened in 15+ years of coaching small business owners.

Here are a few things good service providers do that can separate themselves and truly add value to small business owners:

  • Purge the hourly mentality
  • Focus on what’s best for your client (vs. what’s best for you)
  • Establish and frequently revisit clearly defined deliverables
  • Have a true desire to help
  • Educate your clients

We’ve been blessed to work with and meet several service providers who do great work with small business owners.  If you are a small business owner who is frustrated with your current providers, don’t settle for less than stellar results.

 

People, Companies and Resources We Mentioned in the Show

 

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How Do I Deal With The Litany of Excuses for Late or Non-Payment?

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Just about every business owner we’ve met has had to deal with collecting payment from customers who are simply late in paying for products or services or are actually refusing to pay.  What’s the best way to deal with these situations?  Depending on your style, you may actually look forward to calling up and yelling at someone to pay you, but most folks would rather get poked in the eye than have to confront someone on payment and have a potential conflict.

At this point, we’ve nearly heard all the excuses people will float your way.  Everything from “We didn’t get your invoice” to “We’re cutting you a check this week” to “Someone stole our checks”.  There are some simple things you can do to avoid getting into these situations.  There are also several things you can do to effectively collect what’s owed to you and do it in a way that isn’t going to cost you customers or hurt your bank account!

On tonight’s show we also address whether you should give someone a “man hug” after you’ve fired them and is it really better to work for someone else or yourself?  You won’t believe the stuff we found on these topics!

People, Companies and Resources We Mentioned in the Show

 

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How Do You Transition Your Family Business Like They Do It In The NFL?

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A common focus for our business coaching is helping owners of small companies pull together and executed a succession or transition plan for their business to hand things off to the next generation.  We have found that the majority of small business owners would like to eventually transition the business to someone else in their family (e.g. their kids).  Unfortunately most don’t have plans in place to make this happen.

We touched on a couple of recent articles citing examples of NFL teams and the family drama that can ensue when looking to transition ownership from one generation to the next.  While these transitions are often played out in a more public forum, the situations and challenges are no different from what is faced by smaller companies that aren’t under the public spot light of being a professional sports franchise.  Things like warring siblings, second or third spouses, and ego-filled founders, are as commonplace on Main Street as they are in the office of NFL ownership.

In tonight’s show we shared some stories of clients we have helped through this process and the lessons that applied to them as well as these NFL owners.  Some of these nuggets might appear to be common sense, but once the veil of family gets pulled over the situation, things can often get more cloudy vs. clear when it comes to transitions.  Enjoy the show!

People, Companies and Resources We Mentioned in the Show

 

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How Truly Different are Non-Profits and For-Profits?

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One topic we discuss with all of our business coaching clients at some point is the idea of setting up a non-profit. It often comes up in conversations when we are dealing with a family business that is transitioning from one generation to the next. Starting a non-profit can be a great way for the current generation to transition from running the day-to-day family business to putting their energies into something they are passionate about.

What we have found is that most people don’t know much about non-profits and how they work. In fact, there is an overall perception that you can’t make money with a non-profit. In reality, non-profits have a lot more in common with for-profit entities than most people think. The same 7 Keys to Success we use to coach our for-profit business owners apply equally as well to non-profits.

During today’s show we shared several examples of non-profits that we have personally been involved with and helped set up and walked through a couple of current examples of non-profits we’re working to launch. If you’re a newbie to the idea of non-profits then tonight’s show is one you won’t want to miss!

People, Companies and Resources We Mentioned in the Show

  • Types of IRS non-profit classifications (https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/types-of-tax-exempt-organizations)
  • Charitable Organizations Classified as 501(c)(3) (https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/charitable-organizations/exemption-requirements-section-501c3-organizations)
  • Non-profit employees making over $1 million annually (https://www.erieri.com/blog/post/2017/12/27/How-Many-Charity-CEOs-Will
  • Earn-$1-Million-or-More-in-2018) and (https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2017/03/08/million-dollar-compensation-nonprofit-ceos/)
  • MVP’s 7 Keys to Success (http://maximumvp.com/7-keys-to-success/)
  • Family Feud (https://www.familyfeud.com)
  • Esther Lewis Warburton Patient Education Initiative/The Patient Revolution (https://patientrevolution.org/about/)
  • Wiener dogs (https://www.akc.org/dog-breeds/dachshund/)

 

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How Do I Lead My Team?

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One area of business ownership that can be very uncomfortable is having everyone’s eyes on you as the Leader of the company.  As we’ve discussed hundreds of times, being a business owner includes a lot of things that folks don’t necessarily like or want to do.  Depending on your style, Leadership may in fact be one of those things you don’t look forward to, but you’re the owner so you have to at least give it a shot.

The world is full of all sorts of stories of poor leadership.  Just read or watch any of the news today alone and you see examples of the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania and the grand jury findings on abuse and cover ups.  Or stories about Maryland football and coach D.J. Durkin and his staff and how something they did lead to the death of a 19-year old player from heat exhaustion.

Like many things in life, we can often learn more from our mistakes (or mistakes of others) than we do from our successes.  One of the things we coach all of our business owner clients on is how to best lead their organization and help them work through things that aren’t too comfortable for them.  Part of how we do this is help them to focus on their role and reinforce what it means to be a leader vs. a doer all the time.  Things like:

 

  • Plan Direct Control
  • Do What’s Best For The Organization
  • Help OR Get Out Of The Way
  • Sometimes You Have To Jump On The Grenade
  • Don’t Ask People To Do Something You’re Not Willing To Do

 

We covered these and several more nuggets in tonight’s show.  Enjoy!

 

People, Companies and Resources We Mentioned in the Show

 

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How Do I Know What To Do Next?

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We touched on a couple of topics during tonight’s show. One topic has to do with why you should hire overqualified people even though we find most small business owners talking themselves out of it.  The second topic had to do with how do you know what to do next or where to start?  These are two common issues we have seen with a number of small business owners.

As counter-intuitive as it might sound, many small business owners are afraid of hiring folks who are overqualified.  Jack and I have a hard time with this as we know the tremendous value good people can bring to an organization.  Many owners make the mistake of viewing someone who is overqualified as being too expensive so they think they can’t afford them.  Usually this is the result of the owner not having worked with good people.  Owners may also express a fear that if they bring in this overqualified person then they will leave in six months or they will just go off to start their own competing business after they learn from this business.  Our response to this is SO WHAT!  Good people bring almost instant value to any organization they join and will leave that organization better off than when they joined.  It doesn’t matter if it’s six months or six years.

We find many business owners getting stuck with ideas they’ve had for a while but they just aren’t sure where to start or what to do next.  So too often they just freeze up or spin their wheels.  A big reason for this is what we refer to as “people not knowing what they don’t know.”  That may seem like an odd phrase, but just think about it for a moment.  If I don’t know what I don’t know, I’m probably never going to get to the answer on my next move.  I have to go searching for answers.  This will require me to engage with different people and investigate different resources to start to realize what it is that I don’t know and then start to get educated on that topic so I can move forward.  A big part of what we do with our business coaching clients is to help them work through this process quickly and suggest next steps for them to take to move forward.  It often starts with documenting stuff going on in your business.  That moving forward process creates tremendous energy for all people involved.

We shared several stories on tonight’s shows of client situations where there have been some great successes by following some of the principles we covered during the show.  Enjoy!

 

People, Companies and Resources We Mentioned in the Show

 

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How Do I Know I’m Ready To Sell My Business?

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If you’re a business owner and you haven’t thought about when you want to sell your business, or you haven’t thought about it in a while, here’s a sign that you should be thinking about it.  As we know, most people don’t start or buy a business with an “exit plan” in mind, but it’s something that you as an owner should be thinking about on a regular basis.  Because if you haven’t thought about it, how do you know if you’re ready to sell?

While this is an easy question to ask, it’s certainly a hard one to answer.  Perhaps a good place to start is giving you a few reasons for why you’d want to sell your business.  These could include:

  • Being Backed Into A Corner: maybe you have a partner and you can’t stand working with this person any more or you’re just simply worn out from the day-to-day (or decade-to-decade) grind of owning and running your business;
  • Unsolicited Offer: maybe the idea of selling wasn’t even anywhere near your radar, but you’ve been approached by someone who is interested in purchasing your business; or
  • Planning and Ready: maybe you’re in the minority of business owners and you’ve actually been not only thinking about this but actually laying some plans down to sell and executing on these plans. Things like getting a core team in place to run the business when you’re not around.

So if you’re in any of these above situations, how do you know if you’re actually ready to sell?  A big factor in being ready to sell is that you know what you’re going to do next.  And it doesn’t have to be “retiring” but instead could involve another business venture, but could also include family stuff and hobbies.  You might just be ready for a change.  Or that unsolicited offer might just be the right price for you to walk away from it all.

Whatever your particular situation, we share several stories of clients or ours in tonight’s show and we know some of them will relate to you.  Enjoy!

People, Companies and Resources We Mentioned in the Show

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