I was talking to a couple of prospective members last month and they told me about a session they had attended at the NPOA conference in Fort Lauderdale where a study was presented about the average age of a printing company owner being 59.
While maybe not surprising, they said there was a hushed silence in the room as everyone absorbed the sobering fact that was just brought to reality. So, what do I do now?
In our meetings we walk our members through the FIVE steps necessary to effectively execute this strategy.
1. The most important consideration is can I afford to? There are a number of things we work through with our members such as -
- Do you own your building
- Are there any other sources of income
- CAN there be other sources of income
2. What would an exit strategy look like?
- Do you have family members or employees that will and are ready to take over the business.
- CAN you have family members or employees take over the business. (This may entail a process to accomplish this.)
- Or, you would NEVER want to have a family member or employee take over the business.
3. How much is your business TRULY worth?
- Today?
- How do I increase the value in a relatively short period of time.
4. What is my PLAN for accomplishing this?
- It's critical to develop objectives
- You then need to develop strategies to accomplish these objectives
- Set action plans (steps) that must be taken to execute your strategies
- The SMART goal criteria must be followed.
- A good source of reference we share with our members who want to achieve this is a book called Built to Sell - Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You.
- It is also a good resource to simply IMPROVE your business as well.
5. The most challenging component of executing your plan is to HOLD YOURSELF ACCOUNTABLE.
- If you don't plan your work and work your plan, you will never be successful.
- All of us have a tendency to get too distracted with the day to day. We spend too much time working IN our businesses instead of ON our businesses.
- You MUST allow yourself time to work ON your plan or you will never be successful.
- The feedback from our members is that this is one of the primary benefits of being part of our peer group; it helps them maintain focus and accomplish their goals.
Saying that owning a printing company can be a lonely experience is an understatement.
Our peer groups provide you with a safe environment to share some of your innermost challenges and concerns with a group of other owners just like you where you will provided with ANSWERS.
Our mission is to help get our members from where they are to where they want to be.
After reading the excerpt, if you would like to learn more about the peer group experience, click the contact us tab and we will be sure to get back to you.
©The Next Level Group March 2014
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