by theEmother | Feb 26, 2014 | build a Mother of a Business, business ideas & thinking, buy | sell websites, exit strategy, Finish Unfinished Business, Online Strategy incl. www, so you think you're in business, start with the end in mind, the business model
Offline? Online? Or is it a combination?
Do you have a strategy for both? Do you have numbers and statistics for both?
How do they complement each other?
Some businesses lend themselves to being ideal for online commerce. Others are more your traditional bricks and mortar type business. Nearly all try and cover both methods of operation. Whilst there are no right and wrong answers with this, there are definitely right and wrong questions being asked…
For example, for those with a website: “How does my Business website get more traffic?” is not the right question to ask. “What type of customer am I looking for and therefore where do they hang out?” definitely is.
In other words, how well is the website working for you?
If you answer this with a blank, then whilst you may have an online presence for those who already know you, the rollout of your online strategy has a bit of work to do.
If the purchasers of your products and services are to be found in a particular spot, then your Business needs to be there, no doubt. But just because one type of strategy works for one business does not mean it will work for all.
When looking to Exit, what you want is to demonstrate what path you have taken, why you have taken the path you have and the results of doing so, regardless of the path..
If yours in an online business for example, then you want to provide the following information:
o Pages views per month
o Uniques per month
o Gross revenue per month
o Net profit per month
o Google page ranking
o Alexa ranking
If you operate off-line, where is your Business located? Why there? Is it about foot traffic? How successfully does it work? etc
For both strategies…how do your customers find your Business? Do you know how many referrals your Business gets? Is there a formal referral/loyalty program?
If you can’t provide answers to questions like these right now, don’t be alarmed. Start with the end in mind TODAY, regardless of how old your business is, and slowly but surely think through WHERE your Business trades and why, what results you have to back up your reasoning, and with your opportunistic hat on, where else there could be possibilities…
by theEmother | Feb 25, 2014 | business ideas & thinking, Consultant EXIT Options, exit strategy, Finish Unfinished Business, start with the end in mind, the business model
“…the future competitive advantage lies with consultants being able to move from ‘consultant as expert’ to ‘consultant as partner and guide’ to a client…” (Summary of Cornerstone Session, March 2012)
The evolution of the Consultant can only commence when they are ready to transition from their current Business Model (revolving all around the “I”), to utilising and maximising the Business Model of the “WE”.
The Consulting world has changed fundamentally in the last 15 years and dramatically since the GFC and recent redundancies. With many more independent Consultants coming in to the market (regardless of quality), and clients having easier access to them (via LinkedIn for example), it’s increasingly harder for Consultants to consistently find new and ongoing work.
On other words, the feast and famine part of the consulting industry is still alive and kicking!
In addition, the “business” the Consultant has been building over previous years may not be worth anything at the time when the Consultant no longer wants to continue it. If the business focus is solely predicated on the Consultants personal delivery of their skill set and knowledge, this makes for an almost impossible transition to another.
However, this does not need to be the case. The difference lies in stopping the short-termism and flattening the peaks and troughs by instead focusing on elegant interdependence by being involved in a larger movement, whilst still retaining independence.
That is, being part of a “WE”, by building on what has been established as an “I”.
A select few new breed Consultancies are offering this type of Business Model now, enabling the Consultant to truly transition successfully into the next phase of their consulting career…
by theEmother | Feb 24, 2014 | build a Mother of a Business, business ideas & thinking, Finish Unfinished Business, so you think you're in business, start with the end in mind, the business model
The warning that middle-of-the-road retailers would have to change or die was sounded as far back as 2003, in the marketing manual “Trading Up,” by Michael J. Silverstein and Neil Fiske. Because consumers had so much information and so many options, the authors explained, people were shifting their spending habits: they “traded down,” or saved money, on products when they cared only about getting the lowest price, and “traded up,” or paid more, for goods that were especially fashionable or functional.
That pattern has persisted through boom, bust, and feeble recovery. “It’s the segmentation of the American population that’s killing Sears and J. C. Penney—their inability to respond to the needs of heartland consumers, who remain a very rich force in the world of retail, who spend a lot of money and love to go shopping, still,” Silverstein, a senior partner and managing director at the Boston Consulting Group.
Great article! Read more here
“love to go shopping, still”
No doubt about it. Thinking of my own shopping habits… the amount of shopping done has not diminished much but the way I do it has. How about you?
If your way of shopping has altered, what about your customers and clients?
Are you where they are?
If not why not?
What do you know need to do differently?
by theEmother | Feb 21, 2014 | build a Mother of a Business, business ideas & thinking, BUY a Business, Buy a Mother of a Business, Consultant EXIT Options, EXIT execution, exit strategy, Finish Unfinished Business, growth by acquisition, how to sell a business, Sell Your Business, SELL your Mother of a Business, Sellability Score, so you think you're in business, start with the end in mind, TEMpting, the business model
How Saleable is Your Business in 2014?
How Saleable do you want Your Business 2014?
What are you waiting for? GET YOUR SCORE…
Continuing to spend much of this week working on one particular sale and exploring the sale option with a number of Business Owners keen to chat.
The discussion about what constitutes an Online Business is one I am continually having at the moment . Just because a Business Owner calls it so doesn’t mean others agree. What’s happened with the few I’ve spoken to this week, the business definitely has an online frontend but the backend is still being fulfilled manually, either by the owner or a contractor.
So, is that an Online Business or not?
Really?
GOT A WEBSITE FOR SALE?
My conversation with the 2 website owners continued this week, exploring the sale option. Good sites too. If you want to do same or you’re looking to buy a website (excellent bolt-on possibilities), please email me at dhall@businessbrokers.com.au
And you…what does 2014 bring?
If any of the following tickle your fancy, please email me at dhall@businessbrokers.com.au, letting me know which one it is…
FOR SALE…
BS30 Online Venue Business
Completed Sellability Score
One meeting booked for March. The main focus is on the custom-built technology platform this business runs on.
BS43 Tourism
SOLD!
BS49 Home Help…
One party is very interested. The potential has been well and truly revealed so it’s down to price and the level of comfort required to “pull the trigger”, as they say in the classics! Final questions being flagged now, prior to an offer being made (hopefully!).
BS53 Balloons! and all that goes with them…
Such corporate appeal, so untapped. It’s waiting for the savvy operator that can see past the retail component and tap into it’s possibility as a warehouse servicing the larger players. Completed the database trawl, with a number of calls being made. 4 put their hand up to receive the CA so that’s a positive start..
BS57 Online Business
Signed good to go. It’s making money! Have received signed authority’s and in the process of developing the IM now. Stay tuned.
Others I’m talking too.. are you interested in?
- a particular event
- project management of large Melbourne events
- corporate cleaning offering
- specialty educational toys
- “experiential” advertising and events provider
- niche in building trade (via Sellability Score)
If yes, let me know as these revealed themselves this week…
Exploring the Sale Option?
GET YOUR SCORE…
Onwards and Upwards!
by theEmother | Feb 19, 2014 | build a Mother of a Business, business ideas & thinking, Consultant EXIT Options, exit strategy, Finish Unfinished Business, Online Strategy incl. www, so you think you're in business, start with the end in mind, the business model
Regardless of whether you are implementing your Online Strategy as part of your business growth plans or whether it’s part of your EXIT Strategy, the best time to start is NOW!
Not only is the “Best Time” about demonstrating when your Business does what it does and when else it does/might do so (whether you’re directly involved or not). It’s also about forming part of your Finishing Unfinished Business criteria in terms of the timing to actually put your Business on the market.
What I mean by that is, if you maintain sales intensity for a set period of time only, then a buyer is going to be really interested in how she can extend such periods and/or activate them more often, eg: is your Business seasonal? If yes, when is it at its peak, so that a prospective buyer can get a real sense of not only what happens, but also a hint of what the potential is?
Maybe your peak is not seasonal, but driven more by the contracts signed and their term left to run. Say you have multiple contracts that run for 10 years each. It’s going to be more appealing for a buyer if the Business can be bought when there’s a long time left to run on those contracts rather than trying to sell when they have expired and run the risk of not been renewed!
Take my third and largest (7-figure) Business sold in 2011… It had contracts with one of world’s premier petroleum manufacturers for a 5-year term. Knowing that executing an EXIT was in the Business Plan, it made sense to put the Business on the market when the contracts were only two years old, thus giving way for the buyer to not only handle the re-contracting when due, but also to “court” the client, so they got to know and love the new owner before contract due date was nigh.
Same applies when you have got a lease on a premises that the Business can’t really leave easily. If there’s 2 years to run on a lease, that won’t be as appealing as say 20.
Same applies again to the Online Strategy. Is it locked and loaded, producing Google Analytics stats showing the up-trend in traffic. Having identified the key words as part of the initial set up and rollout, are they will relevant and what others need to be added. Is your website and other digital media activities delivering what’s expected?
If yes, then you need to be able to prove it, just like you can with contracts and leases, mentioned above.
Coming back to when your Business does what it does… are there other times when your Business could operate but you have chosen not to? because you do like to sleep some time! This can definitely be an opportunity of interest as a buyer may have ways and means to handle time differences. How can your Online Strategy really make the most of this?
Always keep your Business market trends in the forefront of your mind, know of opportunities and what’s possible, whether you have chosen to capitalise on them or not. Creating and rolling out your Online Strategy is certainly on way of availing of what’s happening in your market.
by theEmother | Feb 18, 2014 | build a Mother of a Business, business ideas & thinking, Consultant EXIT Options, entrepreneurial mothers, MEinc, so you think you're in business, start with the end in mind, the business model
HOW FREELANCERS ARE REDEFINING SUCCESS TO BE ABOUT VALUE, NOT WEALTH
Time is a new currency and successful freelancers manage, save, and spend it wisely.
Freelancers often work independently, but being “on your own” doesn’t mean “going it alone.” Freelancing successfully means building a network to line up new gigs, passing assignments to others when things are busy, and getting referrals from friends when they’re not.
To read more of this Fast Company article, click here.
Sounds easy doesn’t it?
For those who have been in the consulting game for many years (and still are to some extent), like your’s truly, knowing all this logically and DOing the activity required can be poles apart.
So I ask you, how well are you spending your time?
Is it working for you?
Are you generating enough money to live on?
If not, why not?
What are you going to do about it?
Rest assured, there are options available to you, if you are open to what’s on offer.
If now is the time to start exploring what these are, please contact me on info@theentrepreneurialmother.com
