How to Maximize Your Business Value – In Just 7 Minutes with Laurie Barkman

 Find out how to shape your business into becoming transferable and profitable Discover the ways how to stop letting your business become dependent to you Learn how you can create an exit timeline for yourself and the future success of your business Resources/Links: Want to find out how to create a transferable and profitable business? Click here: meetlauriebarkman.com Summary Do you want to learn how you can exit your business without the worry? Are you ready to find the clarity that you need so that you can afford a grand exit? The value of a business depends on its transferability and profitability in the long run. So how sure are you that your business is worth it? Laurie Barkman is a Business Transition Sherpa working with business owners to create company value and plan for a future exit that rewards their hard work. Dive in as Laurie talks about how you can maximize the value of your business and shares her awesome tips on how to find that clarity and alignment to get your master exit plan going. Check out these episode highlights: 01:31 – Laurie’s ideal client: Business owners who are running privately held companies in the US and revenues of five to 50 million, any industries, but I work a lot with owners and business services, industrials, tech, and all across any industry. 01:51 – The problem she helps solve: Like you said, 100% of business owners are going to leave their company one day, boots on or boots off, but many of them, the vast majority of them, do not have a plan for that exit or to sell their business. 02:42 – The symptoms of the problem: The number one feeling or emotion that I encounter is people feel trapped. And they also feel encumbered by uncertainty. And so, the number one value that I provide to them or work with them on is finding alignment and clarity on a strategy. 03:38 – Clients’ common mistakes before consulting Laurie: Yeah, the biggest thing is they need to understand how they can de-risk their business. So many times, owners don’t understand that a business that isn’t transferable is a worthless business. And the business is too dependent on them personally. 05:37 – Laurie’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): I think a big thing is beginning with the end in mind. Can you create an exit timeline for yourself? Just sketch it out roughly, that you want to move on in 10 years, and maybe it’s not age, but it’s life stage. 06:31 – Laurie’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Want to find out how to create a transferable and profitable business? Click here: meetlauriebarkman.com 07:26 – Q: People want to know what their business is worth. You’d be shocked to know that 90% of us don’t know what that business is worth. Is it possible to find out? A: The answer is yes. We do business valuations to help owners understand what their value is or what can be their largest asset. Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode: “A business that isn't transferable is a worthless business.” -Laurie BarkmanClick To TweetTranscript (Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast) Tom Poland 00:10 Welcome, everyone, to another edition of Marketing the Invisible. I’m Tom Poland beaming out to you from the little sunshine coast here in Australia joined today by Laurie Barkman. Laurie, good day from Down Under. Where are you hanging out? Laurie Barkman 00:21 I’m in the United States. I’m in Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, PA. Tom Poland 00:24 Pretty much everyone’s in the US, it seems! So, you’re on Eastern time, is that right? Laurie Barkman 00:31 That’s right. Tom Poland 00:32 So, what do you got, like 20 to 5 pm yesterday? Laurie Barkman 00:36 That’s right. Tom Poland 00:37 And here is, it has gone. It’s just about this that has gone 20 to 7 am. So, let’s rock and roll off time zones on the business. So, for those of you who don’t know Laurie, she’s a Business Transition Sherpa. So that means she guides people toward creating company value and a plan for a future exit. And folks, we’re all going to exit our business, whether it’s the two feet first, or whether we sell it, we’re all going to exit. So, it’s not a bad idea to get your business in shape so that when you do exit, its value is maximized. And funny enough, the very things that you need to do to make your business uber successful are exactly the same things that you need to make it very valuable. So, Laurie is going to share a little bit more about that. The title is, “How to Maximize Your Business Value” so that your rewards for all your hard work come to fruition. Laurie, let’s kick-off! Our seven minutes is going to start now. Question number one is who is your ideal client? Laurie Barkman 01:31 Business owners who are running privately held companies in the US and revenues of five to 50 million, any industries, but I work a lot with owners and business services, industrials, tech, and all across any industry. Tom Poland 01:47 Thank you for that! Question number two, six and a half minutes left, what’s the problem you solve? Laurie Barkman 01:51 Like you said, 100% of business owners are going to leave their company one day, boots on or boots off, but many of them, the vast majority of them, do not have a plan for that exit or to sell their business. They don’t have a succession plan, particularly in the baby boomer category of business owners. And it’s a particular problem for those folks without a succession, they don’t really have a way to reduce the risks. They run out of time. And many of them just close the doors. Tom Poland 02:19 Right, which is such a massive wasted opportunity. So, let’s talk about question number three, which is, what would you say, when you get a new client on board, what were the symptoms they were experiencing prior to engaging with you? Just under six minutes left. What’s going on in their business or their life where they think, “Yeah, I need to find out more about what Laurie does”? Laurie Barkman 02:42 The number one feeling or emotion that I encounter is people feel trapped. And they also feel encumbered by uncertainty. And so, the number one value that I provide to them or work with them on is finding alignment and clarity on a strategy. And it gives a sense of relief, and then when we execute that strategy, it obviously can have other benefits, financial and otherwise. But there’s a really strong need for people to find that clarity. Tom Poland 03:08 Interesting. And that clarity gives them a sense of relief. And it gives them, I guess, also a sense of confidence that they’re going to be able to hit in the right direction. So, let’s- we’re talking about business owners who are generally quite successful, really. I mean, they’ve got good revenue coming in. They’ve put an established business. They’ve been doing what they’re doing for many years probably. Getting to here, they’re going to be trying stuff to solve the problem they’ve got. What would you say are some of the common mistakes that people make before they find your solution? That’s question four. And we’ve got four and a half minutes left. Laurie Barkman 03:38 Yeah, the biggest thing is they need to understand how they can de-risk their business. So many times, owners don’t understand that a business that isn’t transferable is a worthless business. And the business is too dependent on them personally. And while that feels great, they feel needed and they have an impact. At the same time, it is creating a situation where that businesses cannot thrive without them. So, if they can’t take a vacation, and that wears on them, that wears on their health. So, a business that, has too much owner dependency is one big risk factor. And there are many others, whether it’s financial performance, whether it’s the team itself, turnover or not having the next key manager line in place. There are many, many things that can make a business less valuable, and at the same time many things that can make a business more valuable. And knowing what those things are is really important. Many owners are in their business day to day. They’re not working on their business. Tom Poland 04:35 Sure. And I guess one of the common mistakes is not working on their business or the development of the processes and the people. Is there anything that comes to mind that people try the proactive with it, which is just the wrong direction or just, you know, just the wrong thing to do? Laurie Barkman 04:50 That’s really an open-ended question. It really depends, but one example is in contracts. You might have contracts that are handshakes, and relationships that are non-written down And, what happens when the business owner moves on? Are those contracts transferable? Are those relationships transferable? And one example in the United States is certification as a woman-owned business. And we’re a minority-owned business or veteran-owned status. And while those can be great. if you’re developing a business around those contracts and relationships of your status, are they transferable to another owner? And it’s kind of a catch-22? And that’s just one example. We do run into lots of those issues. Tom Poland 05:28 Perfect! Thank you for that. Question five is one valuable free action. Give folks, if you would, a top tip that’s not going to solve the whole proble...