In this episode, Robert talks about developing an exit strategy and focusing on developing your company into an asset and not a job.
Robert elaborates on 2 scenarios, and shares his personal experience losing his business partner of 20 years. People tend to shy away from thinking about death, but Robert emphasizes the importance of responsible planning in business.
We’re reminded that systemization is critical, and that if the company can’t function on its own without major input from us, we are essentially employees, not owners.
Robert tells us we need to constantly look at our companies from an outsider’s perspective – even if we think we’re going to keep it forever, it’s important to keep track of the value of the company to stay focused on the right things – profit and long-term potential are what drive value. Robert gives us the tools we need to do this.
This is important not only for the scenario in which you prematurely pass away, but also when it comes to growth on a day-to-day basis.
Highlights
- “You never know what’s going to happen in life, and the things that you think are never going to happen – when they happen, it’s a reality check.”
- “If you can’t take a vacation for a week and the company doesn’t run by itself without any major input from you, you’re not really an owner – you’re an employee who happens to own 100% of the stock in the company.”
- “You really need to build value in your company. You should always aim for this.”
- “Your goal should be to always look at your company from an outsider’s perspective, and what you could sell it for right now. Thinking how you can increase the value consistently will keep you focused on the right things, i.e. profit and long-term potential.”
- “When it comes to creating value, the number one thing is you want to focus on recurring streams of income.”
- “It may not be sellable, but if you die, you still want to make sure that your employees (if you have any) or, at a minimum, your family is taken care of.”
- It’s much easier when your small and starting out to implement something like this than to try and impose it on a bigger enterprise.
