The Hourly to Exit Cocktail
My wildly ambitious plan is to mix one part Ditching Hourly with one part Built to Sell Radio along with a splash of Biz Chix and a scoop of What Works to create the Hourly to Exit cocktail. Heady stuff. 😅
My podcast producer recommended a disciplined Season 1 that methodically introduced the pillars of the Saleable Services Business framework: Exclusivity and Sustainability. The original plan:
Exclusivity 1 - positioning - building authority/niche
Exclusivity 2 - positioning - thought leadership
Exclusivity 3 - assets - creating IP
Sustainability 1 - leverage (independence from owner)
Sustainability 2 - mindset conversation - issues that come up when taking self out of business; emotional conversations
Sustainability 3 - business model / paid assessments
Sustainability 4 - protection of IP - contracts, insurance
Interview of someone who exited business - process from assessment to mindset to framework
Framework - what are those foundational things - sustainability / exclusivity; why someone would want to exit + benefits; what does it mean to build business to sell
Until it wasn’t. Yes, we will get to all of these! But on not so linear a path. As it turns out, I just like having great conversations with interesting people regardless of how closely we adhere to the planned topic. Sometimes I am inspired by something they wrote and immediately ask them to come on the podcast to talk about it. Sometimes the conversation simply takes us in a new direction. I like it. Actually, I love it.
To my credit, I did manage to stay on track during my interview with business broker, Kate Vriner, where we had a step-by-step conversation about selling a service-based business. We followed the path a hypothetical woman who starts a lifestyle business to provide income and flexibility to one who makes the mindset and operational shifts required to create a saleable business. We talked about how robust the current acquisitions market is. Since I’m one of those lawyers who loves numbers, we dove into EBITDA, cash flow, financing and earn outs. Of course, we talked about when your should start preparing your business for exit. And no conversation about selling a business would be complete with a peek at the due diligence process.
Kate’s episode will drop on launch day, April 4th. She also has an insane offer for my listeners. Sidle up to the bar for your cocktail.