The headline on CNNMoney.com yesterday was “It’s a lousy time to sell your business.”  The article provided statistics and facts on why now is not a good time to sell your business.  Most of us business owners have figured this out but there are still personal situations where the business owner needs to leave their business right now.  My advice is to look at your Company more as a personal cash flow, or annuity, than an all out sale.

What this means is that right now the financing market is making it tough to finance any purchase of new businesses. So instead of selling it, try to restructure it so you don’t have to be there as much.  Great advice and I know you have never heard this before, but I am going to give you some suggestions on how to do that.  On a quick side note this reminds me of when I was coaching my son’s… baseball team and, after my pitcher had just walked two kids in a row, I sat on my bucket and said “just throw strikes son.” The boy looked at me from the mound and said “that’s what I’m trying to do, I just don’t know how.”  Although my advice sounds very simple, many SBO’s still don’t know how. 

Here are a few ideas that I would suggest:

Step 1, accept that you are a control freak and the main reason why you work too much or are too involved in the Company is because you can’t delegate.  This is largest stumbling block to overcome if you want to make your Company into an annuity.  Most SBO’s say they can’t, actually they won’t, put control in someone else’s hands.  The scary part of this personality flaw is that when they do find a person they can trust, they bury them with very unattainable expectations.  So your first step is to recognize that you must delegate your work load to more that one person.  If you can’t do this, then our exercise is done. 

Step 2, take a note pad with you for a week and write down all the things that you do every day.  Don’t think about it, just at the end of each day write down what you did.  By the end of the week, categorize them as routine (needs to be done every week) or projects (with start and end dates).  Then, break it out into what you NEED to do and what can be delegated.    Don’t worry about who will do it because you might not have someone on staff to do it, but at least you know what to look for.

Step 3, plan a two week vacation.  OMG - yes, I said a two week vacation.  You can go anywhere you want but you can’t come to the office.  Don’t misunderstand me, it took me ten years at my Company to do this exercise and I said no way could it happen.  The trip can be during your slow season, but you have to be able to leave and only check in by phone/email.  Work with your staff and make sure they know the rules, expectations and appropriate times to call you.

Step 4, take your trip and watch your team step up.  You will be amazed how well people bloom when you give them the opportunity and tools to succeed.  You’ll come back well rested, a little nervous, energized, and thankful that you had the time to regenerate.  Meet with your team and learn what worked and what didn’t work so next time it will be better.

Step 5, start working 4 days a week and work your way down to 2 days a week.  This process might take a year to get to, but without a goal in place you will never succeed.  Empower your team, build trust, and encourage people to take responsibility.  It’s a double win for you when you can do this; you have an annuity and you substantially increased your business valuation.

So go out and take some time off.  When the owner is happy, everyone is happy!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 at 9:47 pm and is filed under Sell Your Business, Professional Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.