Comments on: Your Business Is Worthless if It Depends on You

By: vean

vean — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:39:40 +0000

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By: Gregg Brown

Gregg Brown — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:47:21 +0000

Hey, did the world ever decide if “Apple” could survive with out Steve Jobs?

By: Patti Bunker

Patti Bunker — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:09:42 +0000

I was having this exact conversation this morning; too many small businesses are not investing in their asset and won't be able to sell it or pass it on when they are ready to retire. Part of the investment needs to be in technology and innovation.

By: Elizabeth_H

Elizabeth_H — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:38:48 +0000

While reading this post, I actually thought of the E-Myth as well. It really nails the point of creating blueprints of all the processes that make your business run. In order for it to be profitable to you, it needs to be able to be duplicated by others. If you're constantly doing everything for your business all of the time, then the money you're making really doesn't make it worth it. Additionally, And as you said, if you can't make the business run without you, it's worthless when you try to sell it.

By: Christine Wilson

Christine Wilson — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:46:48 +0000

Thanks! This article gave me lots to think about while developing my own business. It is often very confusing trying to handle all the different aspects and I constantly have to ask myself what goals I am trying to attain with everything I'm doing. I do try to automate my business wherever I can to save myself time and money. But I didn't think about the advantages of automating to sell the business in the future. This helped give me a longer term perspective.

By: Joy Johnson

Joy Johnson — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:39:24 +0000

This is one of the topics covered in the first session when I meet with people starting businesses. It's built into the long term goal and affects every aspect of how the business is created in the first place – right down to the name. You ought not name a business “Joe Smith and Sons Plumbing” if you want to build value at the point of sale some years down the road. If a business is well along it may still be worth looking at changing the name while under original ownership so goodwill transfers to the new brand. The other thing this approach does is constantly keep in mind the idea of making the business a more valuable asset. It's amazing how many small family owned businesses – with competent accountants – have never addressed this issue. I've met with dozens of business owners through the years who come in seeking tax advice for closing a business that they've been winding down. When I ask them why they didn't try to sell it, they say they intended that their children would take over but Suzi moved to Memphis, Joe's in the Navy, and Tommy's on drugs so they are just going to close the doors. If they do sell, they generally wait until the business is in a state of decline and doesn't command top dollar.

By: ndasika

ndasika — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:31:16 +0000

Thank you for the post. I had not thought about the whole idea of business buyer looking beyond the owner and P&L. I always thought if the business is profitable enough the buyers will come, but your arguement has put everything into perspective. I will also read the book “built to sell”. Thanks for all these info.

By: uscsb

uscsb — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:54:37 +0000

Once again you have covered a universal small business problem. In over 15 years of advising small business owners, it is rare to find an owner who has not created a “job”, even if well paying, rather than a business. The E-Myth was an early pioneer in making owners aware of the issue. Any tool that can give additional information on creating a business that does not need you to run, especially one that will help provide that road map to get there, is well worth the time invested.