In my experience, one of the most common mistakes business owners make is falling in love with their brand. Don’t get me wrong, passion is one of, if not the essential element for success when it
comes to starting and growing a brand or business, but passion should never be confused with emotion.
Passion provides the enormous energy and drive it takes to pursue your dreams, take risks and ignore the haters and “would be’s if they could be’s’” on your way to the end goal. Emotion, on the
other hand, can work as a fog that keeps you pursuing ideas and strategies long past the point that it’s obvious they aren’t working, and thus stray you off the path to that end goal. The real question
you should be asking yourself is, “what is the end goal?”
To me it’s fairly simple, owning a business involves an enormous strain on almost every aspect of your life, from your health to your family and of course your finances. Most people with the
ambition and skill to start and grow a business are more than qualified to demand a very attractive remuneration package from a corporate, with all of the benefits and risk free lifestyle advantages
that come with it. So why don’t they? Is it the allure of being “free,” being your own boss and having flexible working hours?
Well in my experience, for the most part, these advantages are a myth. If you’re doing your job, generally you’re putting in 80 hours per week, you’re time and cash poor, and your health
eventually suffers as a result. In the words of Robert Kiyosaki, “most business owners don’t own a business, they own a job.” He was right by the way and he changed my life, if you haven’t read
Rich Dad, Poor Dad, do yourself a favour. The end goal has to be to take all that compounded work and stress and effort and turn it into a
saleable commodity. In other words, exiting your business and getting paid for the goodwill all that risk has created. So how do you do that? I have found there are a few simple rules:
1. Write a Story for your Business: People buy into stories, Staff, Customer, Suppliers and certainly Potential Acquirers. Why do you exist, why would someone use your services and where are you going? Pour your passion onto a page and be proud of it. Don’t let people “derisk’” it or translate it into corporate speak. Nobody would be lining up to watch the new Star Wars movie if they thought it was written by accountants. Your personality becomes your brand’s personality which in turn becomes your culture. Your culture isn’t just important to your brand, your culture is your brand.
2. Regularly review your story: At annual or bi-annual intervals review where you’ve been and make sure it still lines up with your story. This includes financial results, what your client list looks like and what your staff and customers think of you. These days there are plenty of cheap apps to help you do staff and customer surveys. Tailor the questions to line up with your story to ensure everyone involved agrees that you’re on track. Remember , staff engagement plus customer advocacy almost always translates into financial success.
3. Get independent advice along the way: A fresh set of eyes is important and valuable. They can help you ensure you are stepping out of your business regularly enough to look down on it and be objective.
Finally and perhaps most importantly, ask someone who has been there and done that for advice. You’ll be pleasantly surprised how willing people are to share information with you for free. I can say from my perspective that the proudest achievement in my career is the amount of former staff members that have gone on to start and run their on businesses. This is perhaps the most valuable advice you can receive because most entrepreneurs have invested a lot of money in mistakes.
At the end of the day, when you look to exit or someone comes knocking looking to buy you out, the story you’ve created along the way can deliver real value.