Page 16 - KZN Business Sense - 4.2

A BUSINESS THAT WORKS WITHOUT YOU

Trevor Clark – professional While work around systems may
speaker, business and sound dry and boring to some –
executive coach. trust me that fun and freedom will
follow once this important work is
o you plan done and put into practice.
to sell your
Dbusiness Step 1
at some point
in the (near Your vision statement: Have you
or distant) taken the time to articulate not
future? what you do, but why you do it?

Whether What is the exciting ‘end goal’
you will be or purpose for which your
selling to retire, or are simply keen organisation exists in the first
to pursue other opportunities, a place. This simple statement
question that may help get clarity must enrol and inspire. If it does
on how easy the sale will be, and at not, do not be surprised if you
how good a price, is “Do you own attract the wrong people, and
a Business, or do you own a JOB?” cannot motivate them to go that
(Bear in mind that JOB stands for extra mile.
Just Over Broke)?
Step 2
A business that cannot work Your mission statement:
when you are gone, is simply Now define the roadmap of Photograph by: Lisa Fotios from Pexels
not going to be an attractive
opportunity for a serious investor. how you will achieve this vision Write down your company
He/she will want you out and will – ideally clarify the following areas: core values now and keep them Step 7 your company IP (and all your hard
want the salary and/or profits you ■ The products/services we alive in the stories you and your Key Performance Indicators work) saved and shareable with
were taking out of the business to currently offer and plan to offer team tell. (KPIs): Does every person in your your team.
now deliver a return on the buyer’s organisation have three to four
investment. ■ The kind of clients we want to Step 4 clearly defined KPIs by which you Our Approach
work for can measure his/her performance I can pretty much guarantee that
If you can demonstrate that ■ The kind of people we want on Goals: This one goes without at the end of every month? most of the above elements already
the business will be easy for the our team, and saying – goals give us a exist in some form or other in your
buyer to take over, or better yet ■ What makes us different, direction, and a point against Step 8 operation. Some in your head, some
that the buyer will hardly need to special or better (our which we can measure progress in a colleague’s head, in various
be hands-on or operational, your uniqueness must be defined and speed. Without clearly How to manuals, videos and laptops and multiple versions of
business will truly begin to look defined goals (and a feedback pictures: “I don’t care how you various documents in different files/
like an attractive asset. and captured for posterity) loop), your team is literally did it at your last company, when cabinets. Our coaching approach
Step 3 going in circles. you work here, this is how we do makes the process of getting this
We use a simple checklist to things.” Training and induction
guide the coaching process in Culture statement: Defining Step 5 guides, checklists, stickers and cleaned up, and completed, a lot
simpler than you would imagine.
getting a business ‘sale ready’, and the behaviour or values your forms: they work – if implemented
often find that, once a business is team members can expect from Your organisation chart: Quite and accessible when a team If you want some help getting the
ready-to-sell, the owner no longer one another. Culture is often simply, “Who reports to who.” member is stuck/unsure! process started, or an accountability
wants to sell as this business is a casualty of growth and we Without a regularly updated partner to give you the push/kick to
now Profitable and (importantly) hear senior team members of organogram that is shared with Step 9 get your systems file completed, get
Working without you! established businesses complain the team, it is inevitable that there Your company management in touch with us today. n
is going to be duplication of effort,
Sound good? Track your business that, “It isn’t the same/as fun/ and a lot of missed shots. system: Where do your staff go to
against the structure below to get etc. as it used to be when we find all of the above before calling T: +27 (0) 31 266 2258
you? It’s no use 80% of the above
a picture of your current progress. were smaller.” Step 6 items being in your head or on durban@actioncoach.com
www.mastery.co.za
Position contracts: A clear your laptop – get it all organised
document for every position and accessible on your company
Any time you do a task without on the organogram on the core server, or in a cloud-based platform
functions and duties of the like Dropbox, SharePoint or Google
writing it down you are destined incumbent. Signed by the person Drive. It may also be worth your
currently responsible for that role; while researching some of the
to do it again yourself forever. updated and signed every time modern apps that facilitate this
process and, at very least, a good
there is a performance review/
structural change. old-fashioned lever arch file with

16