Owners travel a road every day and their road has curbs. The wider the road the better. Last month I wrote about customer concentration, a dangerous curb that significantly narrows the road (decreases value). Another important one is growth, or the lack thereof. What are some of the common reasons for a lack of growth?
The industry is shrinking – as in the product is dying a slow death. Forget about 100 plus years ago and the buggy whip analogy, go back five to ten years and look at what happened to CDs and DVDs, and the jewel cases they come in. Possible solutions: buy other companies in your industry or buy a company in another industry to diversify.
There’s a restrictive territory – if you can only sell in certain counties, zip codes, or even metro areas you may reach capacity. Possible solution: get other territories or product lines.
The people can’t handle any more volume – often it’s the owner whom the business outgrows but it can be the whole team. It’s tough managing 50 people instead of 15 or handling cash flow at a level beyond what the line of credit allows for. Possible solution: hire a CEO or COO who can manage a larger firm (and work with them, don’t just turn it over to them).
The owner doesn’t want to grow – this is the most important itemon the list when it comes to decreasing value and I see this all the time. The owner makes a lot of money (it’s all relative), the employees are looking for career advancement, and the owner won’t take the risk or make the investment to act on (good) ideas. So the business coasts. If it goes on long enough the great employees leave and there’s a second-rate team that doesn’t have good ideas and can’t handle growth. Solution: don’t fall into the coasting trap. As in the section in my book If They Can Sell Pet Rocks Why Can’t You Sell Your Business (For What You Want?), show growth, know why it happened, and keep it going. You’ll be rewarded in more ways than one.
You can’t look at the write-up of any business for sale without seeing the word potential. It resonates a lot better if the company’s been growing at 10% a year instead of being flat. Flat sales (and therefore decreasing profits) narrow the road.
“Mystique is 100 times better than publicity.” Michael Ovitz
