EVENT audio: Boroondara Supernetworking “How to Know What your Business is Worth”

EVENT audio: Boroondara Supernetworking “How to Know What your Business is Worth”

As a Business Owner, knowing what your business is Worth at any given time makes perfect sense, except not many know how to actually do so. This presentation goes some way to commencing the thought process (apologies for ordinary audio mid-point).

So I recently presented at the second of the Business Boroondara 2018 Super Networking Night series, where each facilitated evening is themed, with a guest speaker providing valuable tips and activities.  At the session, I shared my insights on the topic ‘How to know what your Business is Worth’, as the local resident a Business Value Analyst, Exit Strategist and Business Broker.

The specifics of what I spoke about were recorded and can be listened to here.
Enjoy! If anything you hear raises any questions for you, please ask… sell@theentrepreneurialmother.com.au

A more traditional way to Start an Online Business…

A more traditional way to Start an Online Business…

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Seth Godin (acclaimed author and teacher) says to start your first business this way:

  1. Begin with the smallest possible project in which someone will pay you money to solve a problem they know they have.
  2. Charge less than it’s worth and more than it costs you.
  3. Repeat

The beauty about doing so with an Online Business is that not only is it simple to do; it can be done far more cheaply than to go a more traditional route.

Don’t worry so much about the ‘online’ part. It is only a tool, a mechanism to reach people who need to know about you’re your business is doing. Instead, figure out how to create value. The online part will take care of itself.

Don’t quit your day job (whatever that means to you) or use all your savings. Start evenings and weekends. If you don’t want to have to start from scratch, buy a small online business to practice on. The best way to move from Learner to Practitioner is to DO stuff. Figure it out with small failures.

Doing so also helps you build a public reputation (which can remain online only). Build a good one, and be sure that you deserve it, and that it will hold up to scrutiny.

Obsessively specialize. No niche is too small if it’s yours.

Connect the disconnected.

Make money offline. If you can figure out how to create value face to face, it’s a lot easier to figure out how to do the same digitally. The web isn’t magic, it’s merely efficient.

Become the best in the world at something that people value. Easier said than done, worth more than you might think.

Hang out with people who aren’t looking for shortcuts. Learn from them. Find and pay for advice that has not only credentials but also a robust track record.

Fail. Fail often and fail cheaply. This is the very best gift the web has given to people who want to bootstrap their way into a new business.

Make money in the small and then relentlessly scale.

Don’t chase yesterday’s online fad.

Think big, act with intention and don’t get bogged down in personalities. If it’s not on your agenda, why are you wasting time on it?

Learn. Ceaselessly. Learn to code, to write persuasively, to understand new technologies, to bring out the best in a team (especially if offshore), to find underused resources and to spot patterns.

This is not a zero sum game. The more you add to your community, the bigger your piece gets.

Here’s a novel first seven steps to get you going:

  1. Pick your Topic
    Create a strategic map of all that is going on within that topic and start checking for gaps and patterns
  2. Keywords
    Concentrating on both the industry players and their likely customers, create a list of keywords that is used to find them and are relevant to your topic
  3. Search
    Using these keywords, start searching and note what you find. Again what are the questions being asked that does not appear to have answers?
  4. Top 50 pages
    Record what the top 50 pages are that come up for the questions. Explore them for the answers being sought. What’s missing?
  5. Extract contact details
    Feed into your database/spreadsheet
  6. Create an “offer”, with the view to discussing what’s missing with the top 50, highlighting how you are the one to assist in plugging this gap (and to project manager it for payment)
  7. Rinse and repeat

Following steps like these will enable you to potentially play in a space you may be more familiar in i.e. the more traditional business, and together, craft and execute an online business model that you has you part of the action.

And it certainly opens the door to a useful conversation about whether your personal goal is useful, your strategy is appropriate and your tactic is coherent and likely to cause the change sought.

In your offer, address:

What’s it for?
When it works, will we be able to tell?
What’s it supposed to do?

Who is it for?
What specific group is this designed to resonate with?

What does this remind you of?
Who has tried this before?
Is it as well done?

What’s the call to action?
Is there a moment when you are clearly asking people to do something?

Show this to ten strangers. Don’t say anything. What do they ask you?
Now, ask them what the material is asking them to do.

What is the urgency?
Why now?

Your job is not to answer every question; your job is not to close the sale. The purpose of this work is to amplify interest, generate interaction and spread your idea to the people who need to hear it, at the same time that you build trust.

You will rarely achieve this with one fell swoop, so be prepared to drip your way through countless swoops until you’ve earned the privilege of engaging with the audience you seek and them seeing the value in what you’re proposing.

As simple as Seth’s advice is, it is also extremely powerful. Follow it, together with the steps outlined and you will be well on your way.

To talk to me about this and any other business question you have on your mind, please contact me via email: dhall@businessbrokers.com.au.

WIN! Could you be as BIG as Naomi Simpson or Janine Ellis? 

WIN! Could you be as BIG as Naomi Simpson or Janine Ellis? 

Competition for The Motivational Speakers Contest
Have you ever thought to yourself  “I could be really big… I’d love to do what they do”?
OR… what if building your profile is the way to actually EXIT?
OK, lets think about this…
Given one of the biggest hurdles to selling a business that revolves around its owner is because it does just that, what if you could build it so BIG that even though your name is on the door, it continues generating revenue and therefore making it particularly saleable.

How to do this?
Have you ever imagined what it would be like to be invited to speak on stage with some of the biggest names in the industry? To travel internationally, change people’s lives and get paid really, ridiculously well for it?
And what if you can trial it for F*REE?

My personal friends Cydney and Carrie from Motivational Speakers International have worked on some of the biggest earning speaker campaigns across the world and they are looking to take on a select few Elite speakers this year.

They are actively looking for 3 things:

  1. Speakers with a desirable and marketable program to sell
  2. Commitment to speaking and delivering trainings for 5 years (or more!)
  3. Credibility and integrity

If this is you, then you absolutely have to check out the Market Leader Showcase Competition!

You could win 1 of 2 fully sponsored places to the Market Leader Showcase program, where you’ll get plugged into the proven marketing machine that positions YOU as a market leading motivational speaker…

 With the entire team at Motivational Speakers Australia behind you, you’ll almost certainly have event promoters and speaker-hungry-corporates chomping at the bit to book you…!

 If you are ready to become a high earning international speaker, and you fit the criteria above, go now and enter your application to win.

Although this opportunity is ideal for up and coming speakers and seasoned professionals who are looking to leverage the reach of the Motivational Speakers Australia Brand, have MAGAZINE COVER EXPOSURE featured with Celebrity Speakers, and want Regular Marketing to Speaker-Hungry-Event hosts… It’s really going to be amazing for anyone who wants to be an internationally recognized speaker!

 There has never been a greater opportunity for marketable, confident speakers than there is now. 
Enter the competition HERE:  
and find out for certain if it is a good fit now to grow your speaking and training business exponentially.

 

I can’t wait to hear your name declared as one of the winners!
And when you’re rich and famous, I can’t wait to sell your business…
GOOD LUCK!

PS: Here’s the link again. Go now and apply for the competition.

ARTICLE: Four Ways to Protect Your Patch…

ARTICLE: Four Ways to Protect Your Patch…

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Warren Buffett famously invests in businesses that have what he calls a protective ‘moat’ around them – one that inoculates them from competition and allows them to control their pricing.

Big companies lock out their competitors by out-slugging them in capital infrastructure investments, but small businesses have to be smarter about how they defend their patch. Here are four ways to deepen and widen the protective moat around your business:

Create an army of defenders

Ecstatic customers act as defenders against other competitors entering your market, a factor that has enabled many businesses to defend their market share in their market.

Get certified

Is there a certification program that you could take to differentiate your business? For example, a RTO (Registered Training Organisation). It was a lot of paperwork and training, but the certification process acts as a barrier against other people jumping into the market and competing in the same way.

Get your customers to integrate

Is there a way you can get your customers to integrate your product or service into their operations? Can you offer your customers training in how to use what you sell to make your company stickier?

For example, like how you use a Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Once the CRM of choice is creating a weekly sales funnel in a CRM platform, it harder to convince you to move to another. That’s what you want your product or service to achieve.

Become a verb

Think back to the last time you looked for a recipe. You probably ‘googled’ it. Part of Google’s competitive shield is that the company name has become a verb. Now every time someone refers to searching for something online, it reinforces the competitive position of a single company.

Is there a way you could control the vocabulary people use to refer to your category or specialty?

Widening your protective moat triggers a virtuous cycle: differentiation leads to having control over your pricing, which allows for healthier margins, which in turn lead to greater profitability and the cash to further differentiate your offering.

Which makes it even more Saleable when the time comes…

Interested in knowing how your business rates at this point in time?
Opt-in (over there ->) and receive the TEMpter which will take you through a checklist to ascertain just how ready your business is to sell right now…

Go on, it’s F*REE!

 

ARTICLE: When is the Best Time to Buy a Business? for ABN.org.au

ARTICLE: When is the Best Time to Buy a Business? for ABN.org.au

australianBusinessWomensNetwork

As a contributing article in the Australian Businesswomen’s Network latest newsletter, this article discusses the best time to Buy a Business:

Quitting life as you know it and looking to buy a business makes the answers to these questions crucial:

What do I want to do?

Why do I want to do it?

Can I afford to do it?

Will I be happy doing it?

Why do I want to take on someone else’s “stuff”?

To explore the answers to these in the Business Buying context, read the full article

ARTICLE: motivationsmagazine.com “Start with the End in Mind”

ARTICLE: motivationsmagazine.com “Start with the End in Mind”

motivationsmagazine.com

Recently, the 2nd of my articles for the motivations magazine.com was published.
Most pleasing! And it goes like this…

During the Retirement and Estate Planning process, “Ownership of Assets” forms part of the discussion. Where one of the assets is a business, and it is a primary contributor to the Estate, it makes perfect sense to ask a number of provoking, asset-protection, risk-minimisation questions.

The questions are best offered from both a proactive and a reactive viewpoint.

Taking such initiative is paramount for ALL business owners who seriously want to successfully transition their business while they are in the best position to do so. In most cases however, business owners will not have commenced the all-important discussion about what to do when the time has come to finish, to exit, to essentially not run their business any more, whether that be by choice or otherwise.

Continue reading here: http://motivationsmagazine.com/starting-with-the-end-in-mind-today-regardless-of-how-old-the-business-is/

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