A business that is not dependent on its owner is the ultimate asset to own. It allows you complete control over your time so that you can choose the projects you get involved in and the vacations you take. When it comes to getting out, a business independent of its owner is worth a lot more than an owner-dependent company.
So, ask yourself these three key questions
- Are you the primary reason for your company’s ongoing growth?
- Have you built a management team that understands your company inside and out?
- Are the processes that make your business tick documented, or do they reside solely between your ears?
If you feel your business suffers from a severe case of owner dependence, here are helpful ways you can reduce this reliance so that it can succeed without you.
Build your management team
First things first – build the key players in your team. Hiring the right people that are passionate about your industry and understanding how your business works is critical in demonstrating its future success to potential buyers. These will be the people that will build on the foundations you laid for your business, contributing ideas, hard work and taking responsibility for its long-term growth. Hopefully, by choosing the right people, your business will run smoothly whether you’re there or not.
Delegation.
It is not enough to simply hire the right people; you need to empower them to make decisions. Of course, it can be difficult to delegate responsibilities when you believe you know how to run your company better than anyone, but, a buyer needs reassurance that your business will operate well without your presence.
Create automatic customers.
Are you the company’s best salesperson? If so, you will need to fire yourself as your company’s rainmaker in order to get it to run without you. One way to do this is to create a recurring revenue business model where customers buy from you automatically.
Write an instruction manual for your business
Make sure your company comes with instructions included. Write an employee manual or Standard Operating Principles (SOPs). This is a set of rules employees can follow for repetitive tasks in your company. This will ensure employees have a rule book they can follow when you’re not around, and, when an employee leaves, you can quickly swap them out with a replacement to take on duties of the job.
Read more @ Nairametrics