If you have been like me over the last few months, you will have been busy getting to grips with our changing world, furloughing employees, re-opening businesses and generally spinning plates.
Job losses, people working from home with new technology, families working together through home schooling. You know it all – you’ve lived it. For many of us 2020 has been a time of reflection.
As a small business owner have you had some time to think?
Have you ever thought it might be time to sell your small business or step down a little but you’re not sure where to start?
Are friends and business associates starting to sell up their businesses, change the way they work or even retire?
Are you in a dilemma about if you should sell, when to sell, whether this is a good ‘business’ decision, particularly in the current climate, whether it’s a good idea for your family or circumstances?
If so, “The Beginning of the End” has been written for you. It will help those of you having the first thoughts of selling your small business to clarify and put things into perspective. You will be able to decide if this is a good idea, and if it is, how to make it fit for sale, achieving the best possible returns to make your next move.
The Beginning of the End is different from your usual book about retirement. It is written for the businessperson in the stage before, who is contemplating their options, seeking a bit of clarification and sizing up their opportunities.
The book will not tell you whether retirement, selling up or keeping your business is your best option. That would be an impossible task, without information specific to your business and personal goals. But I am convinced that by reading this book you will feel more confident in your next decision about where your business is or should be going and if retirement or selling your business is part of that.
The Beginning of the End will guide your thoughts so that you can make the best decision, at the right time for you and your business. Your mind will be challenged to consider different options, in this, the earliest stages of considering your exit plan. It’s never too early to think this through.
Even at business start-up, we are advised to have an exit strategy, but rarely any of us do. Stephen Covey’s start with the end in mind is great advice. It helps us to know where we are heading and how to get off the business “merry-go-round”. The reality is, however, that we often get so involved in our businesses that we are not even able to look up or ‘step out’ once in a while, to take note of what the rest of the world is doing.