What’s MOST important stage of YOUR business?

Businesses ultimately go through basically 4 stages: Startup, survival, success, and sell-off.

A smart entrepreneur will recognize from the very beginning that beginning with the end in mind  is a good idea. Even if the entrepreneur loves running the business, even if the entrepreneur remains healthy enough to run the business throughout his or her entire life and “dies happy” while running it, it’s a good idea for him or her to think about how the business can function without him or her.  This is where the exit strategy comes in. And this is where thinking like a franchise, long before you part ways with your business, can make your enterprise much more valuable.

One of the reasons franchises are so successful is that they are easily replicable (or if you prefer the $3 MBA term – “Scalable”). For a business to grow, it has to be replicable, and the more easily replicable it is,  the more valuable it is because it’s that much easier for a new owner to purchase and quickly derive profits from it! Systematization is the friend of the entrepreneur if the entrepreneur will only embrace that friendship!

Thinking like a franchise, thinking of the business as something to be replicated as many times over as desired, from day one in putting the business together is a good idea. It’ll help the entrepreneur grow it (survival, success), and will help the entrepreneur more easily find a buyer (sell-off).

Begin with the end in mind” – Dr. Steven R. Covey

 

 

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