Some friends have a daughter in her early 30’s who has a decent but not high paying job, is attractive and outgoing, and still lives at home. When I stated the daughter needs a boyfriend the mom said, “Oh, I know, but she’s so fussy.” Maybe, and maybe mom’s rose-colored glasses are on. I would seem to me it’s hard to attract a good boyfriend when you’re still living at home.
We all get enamored with things we’re close to. (We think) our house is worth more than the market says it is, so is our car, and what about the following three business things?
- Business owners often make the abovementioned mom seem realistic. They rarely see warts; they only see something special. The owner can’t take a vacation, it’s a sign of how important he is. One customer is 52% of sales, or three are 80% of sales, it’s a sign of how much they love us. Or the owners who saysomething like, “I know how businesses are valued but we’re not like other companies, so those rules don’t apply to us.” Sure.
- What about service providers who get hung up on their methodology? Anybody familiar with Alan Weiss knows he tells advisors to forget their seven-step process for this or the eleven-step system for that. In other words, don’t fall in love with your methodology, figure out what your client’s problem is and fix it.
- Finally, there are business buyers, who, for this discussion, fall into three groups. The first are those I wrote about a few weeks ago, who get buyer fever and can see no wrong in the company they’re in love with, i.e. they must have it, at any cost. Second, are those so captivated by their own (supposed) abilities they think they can fix any underperforming company (of course, this isn’t all that common). Finally, we have the buyers who throw away the rose-colored glasses and put on their darkest sunglasses, blacking out every business because it’s not sexy enough, perfect, can’t grow fast enough (without needing capital), intellectually stimulating, etc.
The above are why we have experts in various fields including real estate, auto sales, business buy-sell, business improvement, tax, insurance, legal, and other areas.
“Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.” Douglas Adams
