I have never worked with a business buyer who didn’t want to grow (aka scale) the business they buy. I don’t know if I’ve ever met a buyer who only wanted to keep it where it is. So I found a Bloomberg article in the February 14, 2021 Seattle Times interesting when they quoted Pierre Poignant who is running Branded, a VC back firm that has acquired 20 houseware and leisure brands. He said:
“We want to be a multi-billion-dollar company” and acknowledged, “buying businesses is one thing. Scaling them is another.”
My initial takeaways from this are:
- It takes more than energy to grow a business. It takes a plan, the skills, and the resources. When buying one, a little luck is often involved. Luck often being defined as finding a company whose owner is “coasting” while making a great living. Some may say the seller is “leaving money on the table” by not fully exploiting their competitive advantage.
- Sellers really need to up their game to show how the business can grow. This means grow the darn thing instead of keeping it stable and saying something like, “You can easily grow it, I just don’t want more employees.”
- It takes a team. That’s why owners/sellers need to show they can attract and retain great people and let those people flourish. This is really what any buyer is buying.
Some may say about growing a business, “It’s not rocket science” and maybe they’re right. Given how many business failures and struggling businesses there are it might be tougher.
“The greatest and most important problems of life cannot be solved. They can only be outgrown.” (Novelist) Frank Herbert
“You want me to do something – tell me I can’t do it.” Maya Angelou
