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You know that working for yourself means doing whatever it takes for your business. And given the non-stop, all-in nature of the job, the idea of one day selling what you’ve worked so hard to build may seem strange.
Yet seasoned entrepreneur and business coach Julie Gordon White wants you to carefully and deliberately plan for a future sale, starting right now. She firmly believes every business owner should have a solid business strategy from the beginning with a specific end-goal in mind: to one day sell your company for over a million.
Why think big from day one?
Julie uses a simple analogy to put her “think ahead” strategy into perspective. “If you’ve ever sold a house, you know it always looks the best right before you sell. You paint, buy new soft furnishings, maybe even redo the kitchen. Then it looks so good you think, ‘Why didn’t I do this years ago? Now I don’t want to sell!’ If you make your business as great as it can be from the very beginning, you’ll enjoy running it so much more. And when it comes time to sell, it will be worth more, too.
“I want to impart the idea you can work hard, love your business and get the pot of gold at the end of the entrepreneurial rainbow. If your company is strategically run, life will be good. If it’s not, your business is going to run you.”
Julie’s 3 steps to business success
Here’s Julie’s strategy for building a business you love right now—and one a future buyer will love tomorrow.
- Seek alignment. It’s worth stating this fairly obvious truth: If you build a company based on a product or service you don’t truly, madly, deeply love—chances are you won’t be motivated to give it the attention it needs.
Same goes for a business that isn’t totally aligned with your inherent skills and expertise. Julie says the best way avoid this problem is to make a list of what you’re great at—and what other people have told you you’re good at. Then, ask yourself if it’s something you really want to build a business around.
- Identify your ideal client. “The core of what I teach is the importance of being clear about who is your ideal client”, Julie explains. Of course, knowing who they are is one thing. Knowing where you can find them is even more critical.
Why? Because that information will drive all your lead generation. Since a predictable flow of leads creates a predictable flow of revenue, never underestimate the value of precisely defining the “who” and “where” of your customer base.
“Get clear on who you can create the biggest impact for. That’s your target customer.” And remember, “You have to fish where the fish are. Now go find your pond!”
- Create solid processes. If you’re going to grow a company, your systems and processes must be organised, scalable and repeatable. “Trying to customise every engagement or transaction is a losing proposition”, Julie explains. Instead, you can save precious time, money and resources by creating 1-3 profitability “tiers” of service or product packages for clients to choose from.
Julie shares an example from her own business. “I teach my ‘Scale to a Million Playbook’ program to both individuals and groups. The content is the same, but I offer the program in an online group format, privately one-to-one, and, occasionally, as a workshop—all with three different price points based on the number of participants."
Another tip? Don’t forget to streamline your internal systems. For example, if you’re hiring employees, put a solid onboarding process in place. “Having someone shadow you is a terrible way to train a new hire. Use your proprietary process as the framework for your training program, and you’ll be on your way to scaling your business to a million”.
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