Everything is humming along: The business is making you money. You pay yourself, your people, and meet your expenses. You have satisfied clients. It is what you envisioned. You worked on building it over the years, and now it is stable and running well. So, is this good enough to sell? Here is my response. […]
Barb Stuhlemmer
Anticipating the End is Not The Same As Being Done
Well, today is the day. We finally got our counter tops and sink installed. We have running water in our kitchen again! Yay! It feels like the end, but it is not. We have to vacuum all cabinets then put all the drawers back in and wash the construction waste away from every surface. Then […]
Still Doing It All Yourself Does NOT Equal Value
Recently I lost my VA. We had been working together for over 2 years and she had my processes and schedules ‘down to a tee’. She knew what needed to get done and she did it. She took so much off my plate. But, her life changed and she had to leave. It was a […]
Don’t Sink Your Business
This is my kitchen for the next 4 weeks. All of my cabinets & counters have been removed, most of the floors (the rest goes this week), and… wait for it… no sink! We’ve moved a couple of cabinets and a counter top piece back in the room, so we have some space to work […]
Value Not Price
The most common question I get asked about exiting a business is, “How do I know what my business is worth?” Determining the value of the sale of a business is hard to do when you have not done anything to prepare the business to be sold. People often say to me, “I don’t think […]
Life Learning from Nonna on the Stairs
I was looking out of my B&B window and I saw an elderly woman, with a bag that looked a little on the heavy side, climbing some stairs. I pointed her out to my husband and he said, “wow, look at her go.” Then, she stopped, put down the bag, and both of us said, […]
Ready Equals Growth : Not the Other Way Around
“Ready Equals Growth” BUT Growth does not equal Ready. Picture the start of a short-distance running event, like the 100 metre dash. The runners are lined up at the start line, waiting for their queue. Over the loud speaker comes a voice with a command to the Runners. “On Your Mark” : Has the runners […]
Roles Are Key Planning Resources
When you make any type of plan for change, you need to know a few things: what you have now what you want to have after the plan has been implemented how long the plan needs to take to implement the resources you will need to make it happen in that timeline By resources, I […]
Now, Later, or Never : When planning matters
There are three ways of looking at preparing your business for succession. You can do it now, while you are successfully running your business. You can put it off until later, when you hope you will have more time. Or, you can plan to never do this work. In research done by Environics [1], that […]
The Driver’s License for Your Business
Being a good business owner takes many skills, like leadership, time management, creativity, people skills, finances, and others, as you have already discovered over the years. Owning and running a business has many parallels to owning and driving a car. But there are legal limitations on how long you can drive a car. What about […]