The Point

"There is at least one point in the history of any company when you have to change dramatically to rise to the next level of performance. Miss that moment and you start to decline."

- Andy Grove, Intel CEO

The old SBA study says that only 20% of businesses reach their 5 year anniversary. If you have gotten there congratulations! It is nice to be one of the 2 out 10 that make that milestone.

You have to have done a lot of things right.  You have probably worked hard and long, gone through your share of employees and probably still feel the business depends too much on you, and you just don't have the time to do all that needs to be done, not to mention implementing the ideas you have to make the business better.

What they don't talk about a lot is the other part of that SBA study. That, of the 20%, 80% end up locking the doors and selling the assets at a discount when they are through. They were not able to build real equity value, a business that sells for a multiple of its profits or sales revenue. Something they can retire on or pass on as a viable, profitable business to the next generation.

Why? They reached that point above that Andy Grove talks about and didn't change the way they were leading and managing the company.

You see no one wants to buy a business that relies on the owner to be there and run it day to day.

No one wants to buy a job!

Think about it, when you became the owner or started the business what were your dreams, what was your vision. I don't think it was working 45-60 hours a week on top of the stress and issues of paying the bills and dealing with your employee's and customer's issues all day.

To end up in that elite 4% of small businesses that build equity and have a real market value, you might want to think about the quote above and start thinking about how to make that change that will make you a better leader. Build a company that has the Right People, Doing the Right Things, Right.

One that works for you vs. one that relies on you to work!

It takes commitment and action - know what you want and take the right actions to get there.

Goals without Actions are dreams, Actions without goals are chaos!