Check out our January newsletter!
American Business Brokers & Advisors Founder & President MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS SUCCESSION & BUSINESS ADVISORY BUSINESS VALUATIONS
JANUARY 2022
WWW.TERRYMONROE.COM
800.805.9575
RODE THE HORSE TOO LONG
I use the term “horse” when I am referring to a business. I have watched business owner after business owner continue to do the same thing and stagnate before their business dies a slow death. The sad thing about this is that they know what they are doing, yet they continue doing it. Take the case of Bill. Bill had a profitable business for over 20-plus years when I met him. Bill had been introduced to me by a friend of mine who is in the petroleum distribution and convenience store business and told me that Bill was wanting to sell his business. I always like it when someone is referred to me, and I immediately wanted to help Bill. But as I got to talking to Bill, I realized he had put himself in a situation that may not allow me to help him in the best way possible. Let me explain. Bill wanted to sell his business, which was a profitable business, but he had not consulted or researched the process in what it takes to sell a business, nor had he done any of the things that are needed to be done to prepare a business to be sold. First, he had made the decision to sell the business based on his timeline instead of determining what the status of the market was. He wanted to wait until he was a certain age before exploring the sale of the business rather than determining if the marketplace for the selling of a business was in the high mode of paying top dollar or paying a lower valuation.
Next, he had waited until the business was in a downward trend instead of focusing on an upward trend. (You always want to sell a business that is trending upward and making money.) Then, he had deferred to his accountant in determining what the accountant believed the market price of the business should be instead of employing an industry expert who knows the status of the market prices of a business like his. Next, he had not done any due diligence on his business to discover what issues would need to be addressed in order to get the business sold. For example, he had not brought the title work on the real estate up to date to ensure the business had a clean title, nor had he done any surveys to ensure there were no encroachments on the properties or easements that needed to be acquired or removed. Lastly, he had attempted to sell the business himself, thereby limiting the number of prospective buyers who may have an interest in the business rather than having a professional market maker expose the business to a larger pool of buyers. Plus, by attempting to sell the business himself, he was jeopardizing the confidentiality of the business sale process by possibly alerting his employees of an intended sale of the business, which could result in some employees quitting out of fear of losing their job since they had heard inadvertently either from vendors talking or any prospective buyers Bill had contacted. Individually, these points are not so bad, but when combined, they can be devastating. To hear how the story ends, check out Page 53 of my book “Hidden Wealth: The Secret to Getting Top Dollar for Your Business,” which is affiliated with FORBESBOOKS. To get a FREE copy of my book, send me an email at Terry@TerryMonroe.com, mention “Rode the Horse Too Long,” and include your mailing address, and I will have one sent to you. –Terry Monroe
1
800.805.9575
WWW.TERRYMONROE.COM
6 SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN WAYS TO BOOST YOUR BRAIN POWER
Is Neuroplasticity the Secret to Success?
Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to change and adapt throughout your life, forming new connections that can have a direct impact on your energy, productivity, focus, creativity, motivation, and much more. Your brain can expand and grow even after an injury. That’s why many entrepreneurs are saying the same thing: One of the smartest ways to invest in your business is to devote resources to your most important asset — your brain. But how do you keep your brain active, healthy, and functioning at a high level? Param Dedhia, MD, says six key areas are involved: sleep, exercise, joy, nutrition, internal medicine, and inflammation. All of these factors work independently, but together, they can promote neuroplasticity, which is why they all require equal attention. Everyone wants to stay engaged with the world around them, but you can’t do that without sleep. In fact, research published by the journal PLOS One discovered that getting six or fewer hours of sleep was associated with memory and executive function problems, i.e. problem- solving, planning, and execution. So, make sure you get enough sleep before tackling your day. Exercise is crucial because, according to brain plasticity researchers at IOS Press, exercise “alters the synaptic structure and function in various brain regions,” promoting brain growth and even delaying the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. Promoting growth can also be as simple It’s A Business IT’S NOT YOUR BABY All too often, I hear a statement from a business owner that makes me cringe: “The business is my baby, and I don’t know if I can sell it because I have had it for so long.” Please understand that I have a lot of respect and empathy for business owners for what they have accomplished and what they go through each day, but a statement like “the business is my baby” does not compute. Let’s stand back and be realistic about this. A baby is one of God’s most wonderous creations who exudes love and thrives on the love it receives. Watching a baby grow is a priceless event for anyone who has had the opportunity to bring one into the world. But a business is a different story. A business does not give you love, nor does it want love. It does want attention — a lot of attention, and the more attention you give it, the more it will generally respond in the form of financial compensation. But love? No way. As a matter of fact, I have owned a lot of businesses that I hated, and I think they must have hated me, too, because they almost broke me mentally and financially. I would have loved to burn them to the ground and gotten rid of them, because I never loved a single one of them.
(or as difficult) as focusing our attention on thoughts that bring us joy. Gratitude promotes very different brain activity than negativity, anger, or bitterness, and studies on gratitude show that the positive effects can be lifelong. Nutrition can’t be understated either, since it can assist your body in maintaining health and fighting inflammation. The brain uses about 20% of the body’s calories, and eating plenty of omega-3 fatty acids can strengthen brain cells, while antioxidants reduce cellular stress and inflammation, which are linked to brain aging and neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s disease.
With the right habits, you can keep your brain healthy for many decades to come. You might even grow in entirely new and unexpected ways.
business. You may love the money and the lifestyle, but not necessary the business. If you think I am wrong about this, just see what your thoughts are about the business when it isn’t producing the income you need to feed your family and provide the lifestyle you are accustomed to. You will learn then that you never really loved the business at all; instead, you want to get rid of the business and find something else to support you. What we find a lot of the time is the reason people say they love something is because of the law of familiarity, which states we like people or things that are familiar to us, which makes us feel comfortable. But comfortable and profitable don’t always appear in the same sentence. Sometimes we have to do things that don’t make us feel comfortable, but it is the right thing to do, like closing or selling an unprofitable business. The moral of the story is to never fall in love with a business or piece of property, because it can’t love you back. Pretty simple. So, when a business is not producing the financial returns that are needed and is not profitable, get rid of it. Sell it, close it, or give it away, but get it off the books, as we like to say. Do whatever it takes, but don’t think of it as a baby. Instead, you may want to think of it as an alligator, because alligators eat green (money), and that is not good. To learn more about addressing unprofitable businesses, send me an email with your mailing address to Terry@TerryMonroe.com and mention UNPROFITABLE and I will send you a FREE copy of my book, “Hidden Wealth: The Secret to Getting Top Dollar for Your Business,” which is affiliated with FORBESBOOKS, so you can learn what to do and not to do with your business.
If a business is providing for you and your family with the lifestyle you enjoy and producing the money it needs to support those things, then it is a good
–Terry Monroe
2
WWW.TERRYMONROE.COM
800.805.9575
WORD SEARCH Take a Break!
Are you planning on selling your business in the next 1–2 years? If so, you need to start planning now. But where do you even start? Selling a business is a massive undertaking. With so many things to consider, some confusion is understandable, but if you don’t get the right kind of help, you could end up selling your business for far less than top dollar and leave tens of thousands of dollars on the negotiating table. Get the Wisdom of Other Business Owners’ Mistakes FROM TERRY MONROE’S ‘HIDDEN WEALTH’
These are the kinds of cautionary tales that market maker and four-time author Terry Monroe shares in “Hidden Wealth: The Secret to Getting Top Dollar for Your Business.” While we’d like to hope we’re accomplished and savvy enough to sell our business without any help, the uncomfortable truth is that tons of successful business owners have lost out on millions of dollars in selling their businesses — all because they didn’t know exactly what they were doing. Sometimes, contemplating the financial implications of selling your business and dealing with the strain and grief that comes with doing so are worse than actually selling the business. So, what
then? Well, in Terry Monroe’s “Hidden Wealth,” you’ll also learn how to realistically assess your situation, deal wisely with the business that you’ve built over the years, and maximize the money you’ll receive when you decide to sell. It has been said that we learn from our failures, not our successes, but the true sign of a successful individual is to learn from someone else’s failures and not your own. “Hidden Wealth” seeks to do just that: give every business owner access to the lessons learned from the mistakes of other business owners so they can avoid the setbacks and reap all the rewards. Find out how you can get a copy today by emailing Terry@terrymonroe.com .
BLANKET CARNATION COLD EMMYS
FOOTBALL GARNET JANUS MITTENS
PARADE RESOLUTION SNOW WORKOUT
SUDOKU (SOLUTION ON PG. 4)
... continued from Page 4
marketing to the next level. SAS, Alteryx, Kissmetrics, and InsightSquared are great options for small-business owners. Hire (or create) a retention expert. If you truly want to maximize your retention, you need to make it an integral part of your team’s marketing approach. Investing in specialized training for your team is one way to do this. But you can also hire a retention expert or shift one of your existing team members’ roles to focus exclusively on managing and retaining clients. Yes,
hiring is expensive, but remember — increasing customer retention by just 5% can increase profits by as much as 95%. That new team member will pay for themselves in no time! Retention marketing mindset shifts will be game-changers for your company. You can start with one of these tips or dive into all of them. Whatever feels right for you, if you try these ideas, it won’t be long before you’ll see the difference in your bottom line.
3
800.805.9575
WWW.TERRYMONROE.COM
PRST STD US POSTAGE PAID BOISE, ID PERMIT 411
WWW.TERRYMONROE.COM
800.805.9575
INSIDE 7824 Estero Blvd., 3rd Floor Fort Myers Beach, FL 33931 1 2 Rode the Horse Too Long Make Neuroplasticity Your Secret to Success Your Business Is Not Your Baby
Sudoku Solution
3
Get the Wisdom of Other Business Owners’ Mistakes From This Book
4
6 Retention Strategies That Actually Work
6 Ways to Rethink Your Retention Marketing STOP LOSING CLIENTS TODAY!
Retention is crucial to your business. According to Investopedia, acquiring a new client can cost five times as much as retaining an existing one. And if that doesn’t convince you, research from Bain & Company and the Harvard Business School both show that a 5% increase in customer retention can boost profits by as much as 95%. If you don’t have appropriate retention strategies in place, 2022 is the perfect time to make a change! Here are six ways to completely rethink your retention marketing that will save your team time and money. Reallocate your resources. Don’t just talk the retention talk — walk the walk! In order to truly change your company’s ways, you need to invest in retention and reallocate your resources.
you care. You can stay on top of this by doing the hard work of reaching out personally each month, but it’s easier and more efficient to invest in recurring communications like automated weekly emails and regularly printed newsletters. Make personalization possible. In order to retain customers, you must build quality relationships with them. This starts with knowing who they are, what they need, and how they interact with your company and your marketing. To figure out those key points, you should gather and interpret a lot of data, both online and off. You can do some of this data- gathering and calculating yourself (for example, you might consider calculating the lifetime value or LTV of each client), but hiring a third-party data analytics company will help you take your retention Continued on Page 3 ...
Provide your team with additional training on customer service. Important points to emphasize for retention (per Forbes magazine) include frequent and friendly customer communication, transparency, active listening, and the value of relationship-building. Create a fund for customer perks and gifts. Celebrating your clients allows you to give them attention when they might appreciate it most. If you know a customer who recently had a baby or is going through a difficult time, consider sending a gift or a card to show you’re thinking about them. These gifts cost resources, but as Newswire reports, multiple studies show that customer gifts increase retention. Invest in retention tools. Staying in touch with your customers is the best way to keep them happy and remind them that
4
WWW.TERRYMONROE.COM
800.805.9575
Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator