4 Exit Strategies for Entrepreneurs

Building your business is the fun and easy part of the process. Selling it is the difficult and fraught ‘end game’.

The Chinese proverb, ‘start with the end in mind‘ is never more aptly applied than when you are looking to dispose of your business and the end game is discussed at length with personal stories from leading entrepreneurs in my book, Drive Like a Real Entrepreneur, the process is split in to 8 constituent parts, being: Deciding to sell, Finding the buyer, The negotiation, Reasons deals fail, Pitching the price and the deal, Due diligence, Looking at the deal in its totality, What next?

So 4 exit strategies may be:

1. Trade sale

This is effectively selling to an organisation, in the same field or industry that may be seen as a market leader and takes your business in as a division, because of its customer, geographical or supply chain. The sale should be trouble free as the buyer knows your ‘game’. They will be experienced and keen to make savings in overheads to extract more gross profit. Be aware that that process must mean they will be keen to pay a suitable price.

2. Management buy out

Possibly the most seamless transition for your customers and suppliers because the same people will go forward running your organisation, it is just that it will be without you. Make sure that you can extract yourself from the organisation and that you become one of the least important people. Your key staff will love you for this, but they may be less able to carry this off, than you think. Be aware that they may not have the entire funds, need some financial help and that the commitment to buy is a heavy load for them to bear. What did you bring to the party, perhaps sales and market knowledge so ensure that this is in place.

3. Sell to a competitor

Selling to a direct competitor is interesting not because of the actual concept but being in a position to approach them to say, ‘we are up for sale’. This is probably fraught with difficulties because trust and a rigid confidentiality agreement is required. Again improving purchasing power and overheads will be the end game and will provide a suitable return for the buyer. Factor this in to your negotiations.

4. Sell to a complimentary business

Selling to a complimentary business is interesting in itself. It may be that you have a customer base that can take on board this new company’s products which may be complimentary, an example would be of course, tax and accounting and then leading to financial services. Perhaps even in building materials that need plumbing and or electrical supplies.

Whatever happens next, take care ensuring the trustworthiness of the buyer, their intentions post sale and that there is something left in the deal for them. It is not just about you.

Good luck!

5 Simple Steps to Keep Your Business Agile

Productivity is vital for any business whether it is a startup or an established one. You need to be organized and efficient to keep the best control over top and bottom lines of the business. In the fiercely competitive business world today, you can’t afford to be a lazy duck. Smart entrepreneurs in Mumbai believe in agile and swift things that keep the business moving.

According to the organization behavior experts, a company is recognized by the attitude of its employees more than the aptitude. It means that a committed workforce can take the business to new heights even if the working knowledge is a little bit inferior.

Five steps that keep a business agile

Meticulous planning

An agile business is always able to face the challenges because of the strong planning skills. The team members have the capability of quickly sensing the change in the business environment. They stay on top of the situation with high levels of planning and remain one step ahead of the competition. Many startup companies in Mumbai have made their effective presence by using the best planning skills.

Find out the business priorities

Business priorities should be clear as crystal if you are a successful entrepreneur. It is the pathway to success. What is business critical for you, the launch of the online business or new product development? An aggressive marketing plan would take the business to new heights or a new supply chain module? You have to be always clear about the precedence.

Make the best use of the tools you have

The secret of the success is not in possessing the best tools but making the best use of the tools. An agile organization takes the maximum benefit of the potential of each team member. The teams communicate well and effectively. They share the knowledge and add value to the work.

Everyone works for the common goal

An agile team works for the common goal. Experts say that when each member of the team thinks about each step and evaluates the validity of it on the common business goal, there is no chance of unproductive steps. They always evaluate the short-term and long-term benefits. Incubators in Mumbai always prefer promoting agile organizations because they are productive and cost-effective.

Synergy by coordinated efforts

A team that works with utmost coordination achieves business synergy. Common efforts bring achievements beyond expectations.

Keeping the business agile and swift is not the responsibility of business leaders only, but it is a common goal of every member of the team. The five steps keep the momentum high.

Personality traits that is perfect for entrepreneurship

A strategic business plan helps in achieving business goals in a systematic and effective manner. When you think about launching a business startup in India, it is incredibly important to start with a right thrust. Here is a ten-step guide developed by seasoned business mentors:

1.       You must jot down the business vision first. When you formulate a statement that defines the goals and values along with the very purpose of starting the business. It is not more than two lines, preferably a one liner.

2.       Write a mission statement. Again, it is a short and sweet description of your business. What are your plans and how you are going to achieve it? The mission statement is always positive and assertive.

3.       Sit with the team and list out factors that are critical to achieve the vision and mission. Remember, critical aspects for each business are different. You need to think about it by having multiple meetings.

4.       Formulate business strategies and actions. Make a committee of stakeholders and decide the actions required for achieving business objectives. It is not a generic document, but a concrete action plan.

5.       Determine the starting point. If you are a startup venture, then you are starting from the scratch. If you are already in a business and diversifying, then assess yourself in the competitive environment. Gather the right understanding of the startup competition India marketplace.

6.       Decide priorities and assign timeline. You must keep in mind that any action plan is incomplete till there is no d-date assigned. The date should be realistic, achievable and challenging.

Marketing tips for startups that bootstrapped their way to success

When building your startup, you have two options; raise funds or bootstrap. The business plan way of raising money for your venture still has its place. However, intense competition among startups makes raising funds a long shot for most entrepreneurs.

For the most part, you will be better off bootstrapping your startup until you have some traction to raise the eyebrows of keen investors. Marketing can make or break your startup.

Establish Networks & Connect

Prepare a list of professionals to connect with them, dig-out your full resources to get a contact detail of professionals. The best source is internet where you will find bunch of professionals.  Join relevant groups on LinkedIn, YCombinator, and Reddit to connect with people that can help you. Conferences are also great; just attend the right ones.

Get Customer Input

Get feedback for your product before you build it. Interview your prospective customers to determine their problems. Then, provide different solutions and identify the ones the prospects seem to favor. Finally, ask the prospects if they will be willing to pay for the solution.

Listen to Customers

Listen to the needs of your customers. Use your customers to determine what to provide and how to provide it. Before you make a full offer, test the waters with your customers and let them drive your offer and marketing strategy.

Use Partnerships

Use partnerships to grow your business. When promoting your startup or product, identify other people in your space that can help you get the word out. Partnering with an established company can help to build credibility for your startup.

Use Influencers

Identify a number of key influencers in your industry and form a good relationship with them. Focus your efforts in building a relationship with influencers that have followers and that can market your startup to the right audience.

Trending Topics

Generate buzz for your startup by riding on the coattails of a currently trending “hot topic.” 99designs used this strategy to create buzz on their startup. When GAP unveiled a logo design, which was heavily criticized on the web, 99 designs took advantage of the happening with a crowdsourcing competition to show what its community can deliver.

Use Email

Use email to reach your prospects. There are many cost-effective email solutions that will work for your startup. MailChimp has a free plan that allows sending emails to up to 12,000 subscribers per month. If you can invest in paid email solutions, you can set up autoresponders and run more elaborate email campaigns.

Use Video

Many startups tend to forget the power of video. YouTube is a must if you are bootstrapping your business. Video can not only build your brand, but also get subscribers and visitors to your website. Sevenly.org leveraged YouTube to generate over 40,000 unique visitors in less than 30 days.

 Focus on Benefits

People always buy the benefit, not the feature. Do not lose sight of your business value proposition. You do not have to be better, different or expensive in the market. What matters is how you frame the differences in terms of the benefits, associated risks and value that resonate with your customers.

Cold Calling

Do not be afraid to do cold calling. If you have a great product that will be useful to your target market, call people and ask them to use it. Liam Martin got initial traction for his business through cold calling.