by theEmother | Jan 3, 2014 | build a Mother of a Business, business ideas & thinking, buy | sell websites, BUY a Business, Buy a Mother of a Business, Finish Unfinished Business, growth by acquisition, Online Strategy incl. www, so you think you're in business, start with the end in mind, the business model
Well, it’s like any strategy really. The more pressing question is probably more about whether I, as a Business Owner, actually has any kind of strategy at all!
If yes, then adding the Online component will be less tricky.
If no, then starting from scratch, with the end in mind, is what needs to happen sooner rather than later.
Whilst the following Strategic principles will be Online focused, they apply across the greater business strategy as well…
- what’s worked and what needs to?
- who cares and how will they?
- the Online RollOut Plan
- what does this all mean to YOU, the Business Owner?
We’ll explore each of these in detail, one by one, over the ensuing days.
by theEmother | Jan 2, 2014 | build a Mother of a Business, business ideas & thinking, buy | sell websites, BUY a Business, Buy a Mother of a Business, EXIT execution, exit strategy, Finish Unfinished Business, growth by acquisition, how to sell a business, Online Strategy incl. www, Sell Your Business, SELL your Mother of a Business, so you think you're in business, start with the end in mind, the business model
That most Business Owners do not understand Online in terms of their business strategy not only misses the opportunity it presents but how it even relates to what they do and how saleable it will make the business when the time comes.
I quite often hear Business Owners, when asked about their Online Strategy, say:
- “I know I should be doing something about the whole thing but I don’t have the time”
- “I have a website, isn’t that enough?”
- “What do you mean ‘how well’s it doing for me?’, what can it do exactly?”
- etc…
What I know is that potential Buyers are asking about the Online Strategy of the existing bricks and mortar business almost every time, as part of their consideration when looking to buy. And, they will discount the price the Seller wants because it is has not been developed or activated.
If Online is not part of the current revenue mix of the business then it will not be factored into the price. As my learned colleague Robert Hurst says, “what Buyers buyer is profit, why they buy it is potential.”
If a Buyer sees the potential, that will be a reason to purchase. But, they will not pay more for the opportunity to do so, other than what is actually presented at a particular point of time. If the Business Owner has not brought an Online Strategy to bear fruit, then the privilege of doing so will go to the next owner.
So what to do about it? If creating and implementing an Online Strategy was easy to do then every Business Owner would do it in a heartbeat! In actual fact, from where I sit right now, it is not that hard but you need to be asking the right questions and developing the solutions to make it work.
My 2014 adventure will be all about understanding the questions and the solutions in detail…
by theEmother | Jan 1, 2014 | business ideas & thinking, buy | sell websites, BUY a Business, Buy a Mother of a Business, EXIT execution, exit strategy, Finish Unfinished Business, growth by acquisition, how to sell a business, Online Strategy incl. www, Sell Your Business, SELL your Mother of a Business, so you think you're in business, start with the end in mind, the business model
The next stage of my “service” development is now upon me; concentrating on the BUYing and SELLing of websites from the view point of the website being a profit centre in it’s own right…
This journey all started some time ago when I had the good fortune of meeting Matt and Liz Raad. At the time, I was heavily involved in selling my Mother of a Business, aCE talentNET and I enrolled in their “How to Buy and Sell a Business” program to assist me.
aCE talentNET was sold July 2011. It was at this time I morphed into the Exit Strategist and Business Broker that I am today.
The Raads have now morphed into experts on the Buy | Sell of websites and having had success last time, I’m not going to let the opportunity to work with them again go by, especially when in my niche.
Given my passion is to assist Business Owners to GET OUT, what has become painfully obvious is that most are nowhere near ready. Well, not in terms of maximising the full capability of the sale that is!
And most fall down at the Online Strategy.
This is not hard to rectify but as with anything, the Business Owner has to want to see it and DO something about it.
Having already started down this path of specialising in Online Businesses in the Brokering space, this year I embark on amercing myself in all aspects of the Online space, with a commercial sensibility and sharing my learning, activities and wins/loses with you.
Diarising this for the year will indeed be a most informative and ideally rewarding way to spend 2014… time will tell.
