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 […]
Barb Stuhlemmer
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 […]
‘T’ is for Transformation, And It Doesn’t Just Happen
When we think about something we want to change in our lives, we create the idea of the end goal, we look at what we need to give up and what new things we have to take on, then we proceed to implement the change. Think about these few examples. You have probably gone through […]
EXIT Readiness – 12 Step Process – Stop & Start
Now that you have finished envisioning your future, evaluating your time resources, examining what to let go of, and establishing what resources you need, you probably want to get started, but before you do, you need to stop. “X” – The “Stop & Start” Stage in EXIT Readiness This is the step that prepares you […]
EXIT Readiness – 12 Step Process – “E”
The 4E’s, of the EXIT Readiness Program, start the path to envision the future for yourself, after the business, evaluate your resources, so you know what you currently have, examine what to let go of, and establish the resources needed to begin the transition. I use the word ‘transition’ because making a decision to create […]
EXIT Readiness – 12 Step Process – “I”
You are the founder of your business. You want to EXIT your business in the future and you know there is probably something you need to do now to get ready. I have talked about reasons and benefits in other articles (see a couple articles linked below), but in this series of 4 articles, I […]