Tag: Value drivers

My Business Worth Experience 💭- Slowly Sabotaging Their Business!

by YOUR BUSINESS WORTH, posted in Business Growth and Transition, Company Wealth, Estate Planning

By Thomas J. Perrone, CLU,CIC

My Business Worth Experience 💭

It’s hard to say, but a large segment of business owners are slowly sabotaging their business value and future wealth — and they don’t even know it. Read on and find out why…

It has happened to me many times over my long career, with many business owner clients.

When I reviewed my clients’ situations, I would ask them about their future plans for business growth and transition — a very important conversation to have with clients.

Countless times they would tell me that “their plans are all in their heads.”

🚫 The problem is, no one else knows what’s in their head. It’s just a thought, not a real plan.

Most recently, I suggested to my business client that he create a blueprint (a designed plan) of his ideas and share it with his growing middle management team. I even offered to share it with his accountant, attorney, and other advisors, as I often do.

Despite my suggestions, I heard the same story that’s been repeated to me year after year:

“I haven’t gotten around to formulating my plans as of yet.”

These are the plans that nobody else knows about.

⏳ To me, it’s a matter of time — without communication and delegation, a company loses growth momentum and starts the decline.

I honestly don’t see how a business can grow without communicating to employees the future growth ideas and direction the owner wants to go, along with how they’ll get there. It’s like — if they’re not involved, the project won’t get done correctly.

🔁 So, year after year, we review the same story. It’s like Groundhog Day for me.

So, here’s my question:

❓ Does your business have a written growth plan, or is it all in your head?
❓ If it’s in your head, why keep it there?
❓ If you have a written growth plan, what motivated you to create it?
❓ Have you been through this with your company — what was the biggest problem it created?

💬 I’d love to hear feedback from business owners.

Why?

Because for over 50+ years as a consultant, I’ve been told that business owners feel their business is their most valuable asset.

If so… why don’t they communicate their plans to the people helping them grow it — so they have the greatest chance of building a successful future transition? 🚀usiness Worth Experience 💭

It’s hard to say, but a large segment of business owners are slowly sabotaging their business value and future My Business Worth Experience 💭

It’s hard to say, but a large segment of business owners are slowly sabotaging their business value and future wealth — and they don’t even know it. Read on and find out why…

It has happened to me many times over my long career, with many business owner clients.

When I reviewed my clients’ situations, I would ask them about their future plans for business growth and transition — a very important conversation to have with clients.

Countless times they would tell me that “their plans are all in their heads.”

🚫 The problem is, no one else knows what’s in their head. It’s just a thought, not a real plan.

Most recently, I suggested to my business client that he create a blueprint (a designed plan) of his ideas and share it with his growing middle management team. I even offered to share it with his accountant, attorney, and other advisors, as I often do.

Despite my suggestions, I heard the same story that’s been repeated to me year after year:

“I haven’t gotten around to formulating my plans as of yet.”

These are the plans that nobody else knows about.

⏳ To me, it’s a matter of time — without communication and delegation, a company loses growth momentum and starts the decline.

I honestly don’t see how a business can grow without communicating to employees the future growth ideas and direction the owner wants to go, along with how they’ll get there. It’s like — if they’re not involved, the project won’t get done correctly.

🔁 So, year after year, we review the same story. It’s like Groundhog Day for me.

So, here’s my question:

❓ Does your business have a written growth plan, or is it all in your head?
❓ If it’s in your head, why keep it there?
❓ If you have a written growth plan, what motivated you to create it?
❓ Have you been through this with your company — what was the biggest problem it created?

💬 I’d love to hear feedback from business owners.

Why?

Because for over 50+ years as a consultant, I’ve been told that business owners feel their business is their most valuable asset.

If so… why don’t they communicate their plans to the people helping them grow it — so they have the greatest chance of building a successful future transition? 🚀

wealth — and they don’t even know it. Read on and find out why…

It has happened to me many times over my long career, with many business owner clients.

When I reviewed my clients’ situations, I would ask them about their future plans for business growth and transition — a very important conversation to have with clients.

Countless times they would tell me that “their plans are all in their heads.”

🚫 The problem is, no one else knows what’s in their head. It’s just a thought, not a real plan.

Most recently, I suggested to my business client that he create a blueprint (a designed plan) of his ideas and share it with his growing middle management team. I even offered to share it with his accountant, attorney, and other advisors, as I often do.

Despite my suggestions, I heard the same story that’s been repeated to me year after year:

“I haven’t gotten around to formulating my plans as of yet.”

These are the plans that nobody else knows about.

⏳ To me, it’s a matter of time — without communication and delegation, a company loses growth momentum and starts the decline.

I honestly don’t see how a business can grow without communicating to employees the future growth ideas and direction the owner wants to go, along with how they’ll get there. It’s like — if they’re not involved, the project won’t get done correctly.

🔁 So, year after year, we review the same story. It’s like Groundhog Day for me.

So, here’s my question:

❓ Does your business have a written growth plan, or is it all in your head?
❓ If it’s in your head, why keep it there?
❓ If you have a written growth plan, what motivated you to create it?
❓ Have you been through this with your company — what was the biggest problem it created?

💬 I’d love to hear feedback from business owners.

Why?

Because for over 50+ years as a consultant, I’ve been told that business owners feel their business is their most valuable asset.

If so… why don’t they communicate their plans to the people helping them grow it — so they have the greatest chance of building a successful future transition? 🚀

FREE DOWNLOAD ; GROWING YOUR BUSINESS ON PURPOSE

tperrone@necgginc.com

Why 75% of Businesses Fail in 10 Years (And How to Fix It)

by YOUR BUSINESS WORTH, posted in Business Growth and Transition, Buy and Sell Agreements, Company Wealth, Estate Costs, Uncategorized

By Thomas J. Perrone, CLU, CIC

Your Business May Have a Plan. But Does It Have a Plan for the Details?

After more than 53 years working with business owners, I have noticed a recurring problem:

Business owners are often unaware of the things they don’t know.

And that lack of awareness can be expensive.

Most business owners are very good at running their businesses. They know their customers, their products, their employees, and their markets. They know how to generate revenue and solve the problems that show up every day.

But there is another side of business ownership that often gets overlooked—the planning that takes place behind the scenes.

I call this the Plan for Details.

It is the planning that addresses how you will grow the business, protect what you have built, create wealth from the business, and eventually transition out of the business.

It is different from the action plan that gets you into business and keeps the cash flow moving.

And that difference can have a tremendous impact on the ultimate value of your business.

Three Levels of Awareness

I believe there are three different levels of awareness among business owners.

1. You know there is a problem—but you tolerate it.

You recognize that something isn’t working perfectly, but because the business is still operating, you don’t address it.

“It’s working well enough” becomes the answer.

2. You discover a problem and fix it.

You weren’t aware of the issue, but once someone points it out, you understand it and take action.

This type of awareness can prevent financial leakage and help improve the business.

3. You don’t know what you don’t know.

This is the most dangerous situation.

You don’t know that an opportunity exists. You don’t know that a risk exists. You don’t know that something is costing you money.

And because you don’t know about it, nothing changes.

This is one of the biggest challenges facing business owners today.

There are opportunities to increase business value, protect the company, improve cash flow, retain key employees, create wealth outside the business, and prepare for a future transition—but many owners simply aren’t aware that these opportunities exist.

The Business Owner’s Action Plan vs. the Plan for Details

When most people start a business, their attention naturally goes toward the Action Plan.

They want to get their product or service to market.

They want customers.

They want revenue.

They want cash flow.

They want the business to grow.

And that’s exactly where an entrepreneur should be focused in the beginning.

The Action Plan is exciting. It’s where the energy is.

But the part that often gets avoided is the Plan for Details.

The Plan for Details addresses four critical areas:

  • Growth

  • Protection

  • Equity creation and distribution

  • Exit and transition

These are the areas that can determine whether a business simply produces an income—or ultimately creates substantial wealth for its owner.

What Happens Without a Plan for Details?

Without this type of planning, business owners can find themselves facing problems they never anticipated.

They may:

  • Lose key employees.

  • Lose customers or valuable relationships.

  • Face lawsuits or other unexpected risks.

  • Have no plan if the owner dies or becomes disabled.

  • Experience significant financial consequences when an owner dies.

  • Lose money unnecessarily through inefficient tax planning.

  • Fail to build wealth outside the business.

  • Struggle to create a strong company culture.

  • Have difficulty attracting and retaining talented employees.

  • Miss opportunities for innovation.

  • Discover too late that their business isn’t attractive to a buyer.

None of these problems necessarily mean the owner did a poor job running the business.

They may simply mean that the owner never had a comprehensive Plan for Details.

Building Business Value Is More Than Increasing Revenue

One of the most important concepts in business planning is understanding value drivers.

Value drivers are the characteristics of a business that make it attractive to a prospective buyer.

A buyer doesn’t simply look at what the business makes today.

The buyer wants to know:

Will this business continue to produce cash flow after I buy it?

That leads to questions about:

  • Growth potential

  • Cash flow

  • Key employees

  • Management depth

  • Systems and processes

  • Customer relationships

  • Company culture

  • Dependence on the owner

  • Opportunities for future growth

A business with strong systems, capable employees, good cash flow, and growth potential is generally much more attractive to a buyer than a business that depends almost entirely on its owner.

That’s why planning for a transition shouldn’t begin when you’re ready to sell.

It should begin years—even decades—before you leave.

What If You Died Tonight?

Here’s a question every business owner should ask:

What would happen to your business if you died tonight?

Or what happens if you become disabled?

What happens to your employees?

What happens to your customers?

What happens to your bank financing?

What happens to your family?

What happens to the value you’ve spent years building?

For example, the loss of an owner or key person can have an immediate impact on a company’s financial stability and operations.

And a key employee who leaves may take valuable relationships, knowledge, employees, and even trade secrets with them.

The solution isn’t simply to hope they stay.

The business needs a strategy for retaining the people who are critical to its success.

Key Employees Are Part of Your Business Value

A strong company doesn’t depend entirely on the owner.

The goal should be to develop people who can think and act like owners.

When you accomplish that, several things happen.

You create stronger management.

You create greater freedom for the owner.

You create more time for family and other priorities.

You improve cash flow.

You create a business that can operate without the owner being involved in every decision.

And you make the business more attractive to a future buyer.

A buyer wants to purchase a business—not purchase a job.

If the owner walks out the door and the business falls apart, the business becomes much harder to sell.

Culture Is a Business Asset

Another often-overlooked component of business value is company culture.

A strong culture can make recruiting easier because people want to work for companies where they feel valued and where they can see a future.

Culture can also improve retention.

And when good people stay, they accumulate knowledge, build relationships, develop systems, and become increasingly valuable to the organization.

The result is a stronger business.

Creating Wealth Outside the Business

Many business owners spend decades building wealth inside their company.

The problem is that their business may represent the overwhelming majority of their net worth.

That creates concentration risk.

It also creates a problem when the owner eventually wants to retire.

The question becomes:

How do you convert business success into personal wealth?

This is where careful planning can be particularly important.

The business may be capable of generating cash flow that can be used strategically to create wealth outside the company while continuing to grow and operate the business.

The objective isn’t simply to accumulate money.

The objective is to create a business that produces cash flow, builds equity, and ultimately allows the owner to convert business value into financial independence.

Why Traditional Planning Often Doesn’t Work for Business Owners

One reason business owners don’t have a Plan for Details is that traditional planning can become unnecessarily complicated.

Business owners are busy.

They don’t want a planning process that takes months and requires endless meetings.

They want to understand the issues, make decisions, and move forward.

Another problem is that different advisors often work independently.

The business owner may have a CPA, attorney, financial advisor, insurance professional, and business consultant—but nobody is bringing the pieces together.

In my experience, the best planning occurs when the appropriate advisors work together.

Your CPA understands the tax issues.

Your attorney understands the legal issues.

Your financial advisor understands investments and financial strategies.

Your business consultant understands the business.

Put the right people around the same table and you can begin solving the actual problems of the business rather than simply selling products.

The Four Areas of the GWT Business Planning System

The GWT Business Planning System focuses on four fundamental areas.

1. Growth

How can you increase the value of the business?

What systems, people, processes, and strategies can help the company grow?

2. Protection

What happens if something goes wrong?

What if the owner dies?

What if the owner becomes disabled?

What if a key employee leaves?

What if the company is sued?

What if cash flow suddenly becomes a problem?

Protection planning is about preparing for the “what ifs.”

3. Equity Creation and Distribution

How can the business create wealth for its owner?

And just as importantly, how can some of that wealth eventually be distributed outside the business?

The goal is to use the business strategically—not simply as a source of income, but as a vehicle for creating wealth.

4. Exit and Transition

Eventually, every business owner has to answer one question:

What happens to the business when you’re no longer running it?

That doesn’t necessarily mean selling tomorrow.

Transition could be 10, 20, or even 30 years away.

But the decisions you make today can have a tremendous impact on the options available to you later.

The GWT 30-Day Business Planning Pathway

The GWT Business Planning System was designed around a simple idea:

Business planning doesn’t have to consume your life.

The process uses a series of approximately 15–16 planning blueprints that help identify the areas that deserve attention.

You don’t necessarily need all of them.

You identify the areas that are most relevant to your business, prioritize them, and then work on them one at a time.

The process is designed to take approximately 2–4 hours of the business owner’s time over a 30-day period.

It includes short educational videos, forms, discussions, and planning sessions.

The goal isn’t to overwhelm you with information.

The goal is to help you become aware of what you don’t know, identify the areas that need attention, and establish a practical path forward.

The Real Goal Isn’t a Bigger Binder

Business planning shouldn’t be about creating a complicated document that sits on a shelf.

It should create action.

A good Plan for Details should help you:

  • Build business value.

  • Protect the value you’ve created.

  • Improve cash flow.

  • Develop key employees.

  • Build management depth.

  • Create a stronger company culture.

  • Reduce dependence on the owner.

  • Create wealth outside the business.

  • Prepare for unexpected events.

  • Increase the likelihood of a successful transition.

Ultimately, it should give the owner something that is often just as valuable as money:

freedom.

Freedom to spend more time with family.

Freedom to take time away from the business.

Freedom to make decisions based on opportunity rather than necessity.

And eventually, freedom to leave the business on your terms.

Your Business Needs More Than an Action Plan

The Action Plan gets the business moving.

The Plan for Details determines what happens after it starts moving.

If you are a business owner, ask yourself:

Do I know exactly what would happen to my business if I died, became disabled, or lost a key employee?

Do I have a plan for building value?

Do I know how I will eventually get my wealth out of the business?

Could my business operate successfully without me?

Would someone want to buy my business today?

If you don’t know the answers, that’s not necessarily a problem.

It may simply mean you’ve discovered something you weren’t aware of.

And that’s where good planning begins.

The Bottom Line

Most business owners don’t have a business planning problem because they don’t care.

They have one because they’re busy running the business.

The Plan for Details is designed to help close that gap.

It gives you a way to step back from the day-to-day operation of the company and look at the bigger picture—growth, protection, equity creation, and transition.

The earlier you begin, the more options you have.

And the objective isn’t simply to build a bigger business.

It’s to build a business that creates wealth, protects that wealth, and ultimately gives you the freedom to decide what happens next.

Lets Discuss: Toms Calendar

Free Download; The Planning GWT PLANNING SYSTEM® Guide

Article: Where you are- Where you Could Be

Tperrone@necgginc.com

If you would like to learn more about the GWT Business Planning System and the 30-Day Business Planning Pathway, contact Thomas J. Perrone, CLU, CIC at 203-530-6615.

10 Mistakes Business Owners Make That Can Cause a Failed Transition or Exit

by YOUR BUSINESS WORTH, posted in Business Growth and Transition, Buy and Sell Agreements, Company Wealth, Estate Planning, Executive Benefits, retirement, Tax Free Income, Valuation, Value drivers, Working On Your Business

By Thomas J. Perrone, CLU,CIC

1. Waiting Until They Are Ready to Sell to Start Planning

One of the biggest mistakes is treating transition planning as something that begins when the owner decides to retire or sell.

A successful transition may require years of preparation. The decisions made today can determine the options available years from now.

Mistake: “I’ll deal with the transition when I’m ready to leave.”

Better approach: Build the business with the eventual transition in mind from the beginning.

2. Making the Business Too Dependent on the Owner

If the owner has to approve every decision, maintain every major relationship, and solve every important problem, the business may be difficult to transfer.

A buyer wants to purchase a business—not a job.

Mistake: Building a company where the owner is indispensable.

Better approach: Develop capable managers and employees who can operate the business without the owner’s constant involvement.

3. Focusing Only on Revenue Instead of Business Value

Revenue doesn’t automatically translate into a valuable business.

A prospective buyer will want to know whether the company can continue producing cash flow after the owner leaves.

Growth potential, cash flow, management depth, systems, customer relationships, culture, and owner dependence all affect the attractiveness of a business to a buyer.

Mistake: Assuming “more revenue” automatically means “more value.”

Better approach: Identify and strengthen the company’s actual value drivers.

4. Failing to Develop Key Employees and Management

A business that relies heavily on one owner—or a small number of key people—can become vulnerable when those people leave.

A strong management team gives the business continuity and can make it significantly more attractive to a future buyer.

Mistake: Keeping the business dependent on a few individuals.

Better approach: Develop people who can think and act like owners.

5. Ignoring Company Culture

Culture is often treated as something soft or secondary. But a strong culture can improve recruiting, retention, knowledge transfer, and employee loyalty.

When good employees stay, they accumulate knowledge, develop relationships, and strengthen the organization.

Mistake: Assuming culture has nothing to do with business value.

Better approach: Treat culture as an asset that contributes to the strength and continuity of the business.

6. Failing to Prepare for the Owner’s Death or Disability

One of the most important questions an owner should ask is:

“What would happen to my business if I died tonight?”

The consequences can affect employees, customers, financing, family members, and the value of the business.

Mistake: Assuming there will always be time to deal with an unexpected event.

Better approach: Have a strategy for protecting the business against the unexpected.

7. Keeping Most of Their Wealth Trapped Inside the Business

Many owners spend decades accumulating wealth inside their company.

That can create concentration risk and make retirement more difficult because the owner eventually has to figure out how to convert business equity into personal financial security.

Mistake: Building a valuable business without developing a strategy for converting that value into personal wealth.

Better approach: Create wealth outside the business while continuing to build the company.

8. Failing to Build Systems and Processes

A buyer is not simply buying today’s income. The buyer wants confidence that the company can continue operating successfully after the transaction.

If the business’s knowledge, customer relationships, and operating procedures exist primarily in the owner’s head, the business becomes harder to transfer.

Mistake: Running the business through personal knowledge instead of documented and repeatable systems.

Better approach: Build systems and processes that allow the company to operate consistently without depending on the owner.

9. Having Advisors Who Work Independently Instead of Together

A business owner may have a CPA, attorney, financial advisor, insurance professional, and business consultant—but if each advisor works independently, important pieces of the transition plan can be missed.

The material emphasizes that effective planning occurs when the appropriate advisors work together to address the actual problems of the business.

Mistake: Assuming several individual plans automatically create one comprehensive plan.

Better approach: Coordinate the legal, tax, financial, insurance, and business planning.

10. Having No Written Plan for What Happens When the Owner Leaves

Ultimately, every business owner has to answer:

“What happens to the business when I’m no longer running it?”

That could mean selling to a third party, transferring to family, transitioning to employees, or another strategy. The specific method isn’t the only issue—the important point is to begin preparing before the owner needs to make the decision.

Mistake: Building a successful company without deciding how that success will eventually be transferred.

Better approach: Develop a transition strategy years before the anticipated exit.

The Bottom Line

A failed transition is often not caused by a bad business.

It can be caused by a good business that was never prepared to survive the owner’s departure.

The business owner should be able to answer five basic questions:

  1. Could my business operate successfully without me?

  2. What makes my business valuable to a buyer?

  3. What happens if I die or become disabled tomorrow?

  4. How will I turn my business equity into personal wealth?

  5. What happens to the business when I leave?

The earlier these questions are addressed, the more options the owner has—and the greater the opportunity to build a business that creates wealth, protects that wealth, and ultimately gives the owner the freedom to leave on their own terms.

Comprehensive Business Planning Guide – FREE DOWNLOAD

Toms Calendar: 

 

Where You Are – Where You Could Be!

by YOUR BUSINESS WORTH, posted in Company Wealth, Estate Costs, Estate Planning, evaluations, Income from your business, Inside Sale, Life Insurance, One Big Beautiful Bill, Passive Ownership, retirement, Uncategorized, Value drivers, Working On Your Business

Why an Annual Review Is the Most Overlooked Step in Business Owner Planning

By Thomas J. Perrone, CLU, CIC | Founder, New England Consulting Group of Guilford, Inc.

Ask most business owners how their planning is doing, and they’ll tell you it’s fine. They’ll say it with confidence, too — the same way most of us would say we feel healthy on any given day. But ask that question in the middle of a CT scan, and the confidence tends to disappear. The difference isn’t your health. It’s what you can’t see.

Business owner planning works the same way. The plans you built years ago may have looked airtight the day you signed them. But time passes, tax law changes, your business changes, and your family’s needs change — and none of that shows up on the surface. The documents still sit in the drawer looking just as official as they did the day you filed them. What they don’t tell you is whether they still fit.

We get the documents completed and executed, feel good about it, and then one morning realize it’s been five years — or more — since anyone looked at them again.

A Familiar Story

This pattern shows up constantly — with my clients, and with the professional colleagues I work alongside every day. The planning gets done. Everyone feels the relief of finally having “taken care of it.” Then life takes over, and the plan quietly ages in place while the world around it keeps moving.

The real risk isn’t skipping the planning altogether — most owners eventually get that part done. The risk is discovering, years later, that Washington has rewritten the rules, your business has grown or changed shape, your family situation is different, and no one ever flagged it. If any of those shifts would have changed your strategy, the only real question worth asking is: when would you have wanted to know?

Building the Fix Into the System

This is exactly the problem I built the GWT Planning System® to solve. GWT stands for Growth, Wealth, and Transition — the three areas every business owner’s planning needs to work together, not in isolation. But good structure alone isn’t enough. A plan that’s well designed on day one and never revisited is still a plan that goes stale.

So, from the very beginning, the GWT Planning System® was built with an automatic annual review woven directly into it — not an optional add-on, but part of how the system runs. Every year, that review happens. Sometimes it’s in person. Sometimes it’s a phone call. Sometimes it’s a Zoom conversation. The format isn’t the point. The consistency is.

That built-in review does three things for every client:

  • It catches tax and legal changes coming out of Washington before they quietly undermine a strategy that used to work.
  • It keeps the plan aligned with the business itself, which rarely looks the same from one year to the next — revenue, staffing, ownership, and value all shift.
  • It accounts for changes at home — a marriage, a health event, a child’s changing role in the business, a shift in retirement timing.

The Most Critical Part of Planning

Over more than fifty years of doing this work, I’ve come to see this as the most important part of what I do — not just putting the right plan in motion but making sure it stays right as everything around it keeps changing. A plan is not a document you finish once. a relationship you maintain.

If you can’t remember the last time your plan was reviewed against today’s tax law, today’s business, and today’s family circumstances, that’s worth changing before it becomes a costly surprise. The goal isn’t to redo the planning every year — it’s to know, every year, exactly where you stand and where you could be.

The goal isn’t to redo the planning every year — it’s to know, every year, exactly where you stand and where you could be.

If it’s been a while since your plan had a real second look, let’s put one on the calendar.

tperrone@necgginc.com

Questions? Call me.  My Calendar

Download Your Free GWT Report- Learn how the GWT Planning System® can be your pathway to solid up to date planning and help you with decisions for the future:  Click

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Are you Building your Business by Design…or by luck?

How to Identify and Solve the Problems Holding Your Business Back

by YOUR BUSINESS WORTH, posted in Business Growth and Transition, Company Wealth, Income from your business, Inside Sale, Key People_Or Group, Passive Ownership, retirement, Selling Your Business, Strategies of growing business, Tax Efficient, Team

A Simple Business Planning Process for Growth, Value, and Future Freedom

By Thomas J. Perrone, CLU, CIC

Most business owners are excellent at solving immediate problems — customer concerns, cash flow, staffing, vendor issues. What often gets neglected are the larger problems quietly limiting growth, value, and future options.

The greatest danger isn’t having problems. It’s failing to identify the ones that could affect your business’s future — and your own financial security.

That’s the purpose of the One Page Solution: a simple process for evaluating your company, identifying the most important issue, and taking manageable steps toward a solution — one problem at a time.

Growth and Transition Are Connected

Business owners tend to treat growth and transition as separate issues. They aren’t.

Growth is about the systems, people, and performance that build a stronger company. Transition is about your eventual exit — retirement, sale, family succession, or an unexpected disability or death.

The two are linked: greater profitability creates options for personal wealth and retirement security, while your personal goals (retiring in five years? reducing involvement? no clear successor?) shape the decisions you make in the business today.

The One Page Solution Framework

Start with one question: What is the most important problem that could prevent you from reaching your business and personal goals?

Then map it out:

  1. The problem — what needs addressing
  2. The consequences — what happens if it’s ignored
  3. The desired outcome — what success looks like
  4. The roadblocks — what could get in the way
  5. The action steps, owners, and timeline — who does what, by when
  6. The review process — how you’ll track progress

You don’t need to fix everything at once. One important problem. One practical solution. One step at a time.

A Job vs. a Business

Ask yourself: Could you leave your business for three months without checking in, and still expect it to run well?

If not, the company may depend too heavily on you — which means you’ve built a job, not a transferable business. A buyer doesn’t want to purchase your personal effort; they want a company with systems, culture, and a management team that can operate without you.

Identify Roadblocks Early

Every strategy has roadblocks — a management gap, an under-financed buyer, too much personal wealth tied up in the company. Naming these early gives you time to solve them before they become forced decisions driven by illness, a downturn, or an unplanned sale opportunity.

Small Steps, Coordinated Advisors

Building value and preparing for transition takes time, but the first step can be small: review your company’s value, document one key system, or schedule a meeting with your advisor team (accountant, attorney, financial advisor, valuation professional). Coordinating their efforts — not just having them — is what drives results.

Start With the Right Question

If you had to leave your business tomorrow, would it continue to succeed — and would you be financially prepared?

Your answer points to the one issue worth solving first. Identify it. Understand the consequences. Define the outcome you want. Then take the first step.

Ready to identify what’s limiting your company’s growth, value, or future options? Schedule a conversation to start building a practical strategy for building and protecting your business worth.

Thomas J. Perrone, CLU, CIC is a business planning professional, author, and host of the podcast Building and Protecting Your Business Worth.

About the Author

Thomas J. Perrone, CLU, CIC is a business planning professional, author, and host of the podcast Building and Protecting Your Business Worth. He works with business owners to help them build business value, protect the company from unexpected events, develop strategies for business transition, and convert business success into long-term personal financial security.

Ready to identify the problems that may be limiting your company’s growth, value, or future options?

Schedule a conversation to discuss your business goals and begin developing a practical strategy for building and protecting your business worth.

 

For A full Report Click Here:

tperrone@necgginc.com

www.bpbpgrp.com/tom

YouTube: THE THREE UNAWARE MISTAKES business owners make!

POdcast: Hidden Dangers Every Business Owner Needs to Address

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You Built the Business. Now Let’s Make Sure It Pays You Back.

by YOUR BUSINESS WORTH, posted in Business Growth and Transition, Company Wealth, Estate Planning, Income from your business, retirement, Selling Your Business, Uncategorized, Valuation, Value drivers, Working On Your Business

By: Thomas J. Perrone, CLU,CIC -New England Consulting Group of Guilford, Inc.

A planning system that helps business owners build value in their business,  stop overpaying taxes, stop losing wealth, and creates  business value and aa path so they can walk away from their business with their wealth, and on their own terms.

The Problem

“Many business owners struggle to build personal wealth because business cash flow demands keep their money tied up. Our three-step process creates financial clarity, helps reduce wealth lost to taxes and uncertainty, and positions owners to walk away wealthy when it’s time to exit.”

Most business owners struggle with creating future wealth for their personal economic security because their businesses require so much of the financial resources and cash flow to continue to operate and grow the business.

You started with nothing but an idea and a willingness to outwork everyone else. Years later, you’ve built something real — payroll, customers, a name people trust.

But here’s what nobody tells business owners: most of your wealth is trapped. It’s tied up in a business that’s hard to value, harder to sell, and taxed at every turn. Your “retirement plan” is a vague hope that someone, someday, will buy the company for what it’s worth.

Meanwhile, every year you wait:

  • You overpay taxes on money you’ve already earned
  • Inflation and poor structuring quietly erode what you’ve built
  • Your business becomes more dependent on you, not less — which makes it harder to sell or step back from

You didn’t spend decades building this business just to hand the upside to the IRS, or to find out too late that no one wants to buy it.

You built it so you could walk away wealthy.

The Guide

That’s the problem I solve for with business owners — not as a generalist financial advisor, but as a specialist in one specific question:

How do you turn the value locked inside your business into wealth in your own hands?

I understand how hard you’ve worked—and how much of that effort has yet to become personal wealth. I learned this firsthand when my father died at 51 with nearly all his business value trapped inside the company. The company was ultimately sold for pennies on the dollar. The heartbreak my family endured motivated me to make sure other business owners would never have to experience a situation like ours.

A Three Step System to Extract the Wealth You’ve Built When You Need It the Most!

#1 GROW — Find out what your business is worth AND if you are taking advantage of all the planning opportunities available to you. A three-minute survey, called the Business Owners Personal Viewpoint, gives us enough info to create a “WHERE YOU ARE REPORT”. (A Barometer of your business).

We start with a clear-eyed look at your business value today, and what’s driving — or hurting it. Also, what areas of your planning are effective and ineffective up to now!

#2 PROJECT WEALTH — Stop the leaks- and missed opportunities!

We find where you are overpaying in taxes and where your personal wealth is exposed — then fix it. “OUR DISCOVERY REPORT”

#3 TRANSITION — Build your exit before you need it

We build the plan that lets you leave the business — by choice, not by crisis — with the money in your pocket, not just the memories. It is a plan by “Design” and not a plan by “Default”.

Resources:

Check out this video:  “Business Owners Getting This Wrong: A trapped Retirement plan. 

Get your Free Report: Building Wealth Through Your Business!

Want to discuss, use my calendar:  Toms Calendar  

 

 

You Saw It Coming And I Saw It Coming, We Both Saw It Coming…But we still bought it!…

by YOUR BUSINESS WORTH, posted in Uncategorized

After fifty years of running a tremendously successful planning firm, WORKING ONLY eighty days a year, I can make this statement with full confidence!  

Every business owner deserves success and financial independence when they give all they must to build a business.  NO issue here.  If done correctly they will enjoy financial independence and an abundance of leisure time which I call “your beach”.   

What gets in the way of preventing a business owner from becoming financially independent and finding their “own beach”, are two things:   

First Reason: The business owner has their hands in everything. Nothing gets by them.    They work eighty hours a week and wonder why they have no time for themself or families.   They believe you must work “hard” (to them that means anything that keeps them busy).   While they are doing insubstantial work, they are neglecting the important work (The Business and Financial Key Elements to Their Business).   

Second Reason:  Archaic and falsehood beliefs that business owners “bought into”, such as.  

  • Your inventory and your receivables are like money in the bank,  
  • You must work hard in the early years so you can slow down in the later years 
  • Take every dime you have and invest it in your business 
  •  You need to invest in your business in order to grow 
  •  Every business needs time to grow 
  •  You can’t grow fast 
  •  Borrow as much as you can 
  •  It’s a lot of money, but it’s a write off 
  •  When you go into business you initially spend more money than you want to 
  •  You need to invest in your business   
  • Plow all your profits back into the business   
  • You don’t need to give your key people additional benefits 
  • “It’s easier for me to do it, I’ll do it the right way” attitude 
  • If I train someone to do it, they may leave me and start their own business 
  • You don’t need a business valuation just use a simple formula 
  • I have all the systems in my head, we don’t need a document 
  • I’m not worried about leaving the business, they will figure it out 

Falsehoods, and archaic business principals   do more to destroy businesses than a bad economy.   If you don’t fix this situation, no matter how hard you work; YOU WILL NEVER GET TO YOUR FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE AND “YOUR BEACH”.   It’s that simple!  

But the good news is that you can correct these problems by using a technique that has worked for me and my business clients for over fifty years.    It’s called the “ONE PAGE BLUEPRINT SOLUTION”, and it only takes TWO HOURS A MONTH (two lunch breaks) to implement and correct the two major reasons why business owners can’t become financially independent and find their “own beach.”    

To help you learn more on how you can eradicate the two reasons, I am offering a free copy of my eBook called, “Unlocking Your Business DNA”, (Cracking the code to a better business, bigger profits and more time on the beach).   THIS BOOK WILL help you understand the principals discussed.  Limited supply.  To receive your FREE EBOOK, CLICK.

* Book can be purchased on Amazon; Kindle and Paperback. All profits go to Wounded Warrier Project.

**Full Steam Ahead (title; You Saw It Coming)

Finally, A Way To Work On Your Business Without Giving Up Working In Your Business!

Featured by YOUR BUSINESS WORTH, posted in Business Growth and Transition, Buy and Sell Agreements, Income from your business, Inside Sale, Selling Your Business, Value drivers

Give Me Two Hours A Month, And Your Problems Are Solved!

In my book, “Unlocking Your Business DNA”[1], I discuss a system called, “The One Page Blueprint Solution”, or “OPBS”.    This system is designed to help business owners solve specific problems in their business, effectively, efficiently and without giving up time to work in their business.  It is a way to finally have business owners “work on their businesses” and solve business issues important for the success of their business.    

The OPBS does many things, among them:

  1. Prepares the owner for the planning session in advance.
  2. Organizes what needs to be discussed.
  3. The business owners control the agenda discussed. 
  4. Covers the elements which need focus. 
  5. Allows owners to work at their own pace.
  6. Creates brevity in your planning, leaving more time to work in your business. 
  7. Planning time is 1-3 hours a month which 60% of the time involves a self-study review. 
  8. Issues get resolved very quickly.  
  9. Many other benefits…

I use 15-20 key areas that I feel most business owners need to address if they wish to maximize their business growth and create the highest potential value for their business.  Here are two of 15 as examples of what is needed in the planning. 

This is an example of two of the many areas of planning.  I work with about 15-20 areas.  Not every company needs to fix all the areas, however, over time without reviews, areas of planning which were up to date at one time, can lose their effectiveness when not fine-tuned.

The Sale of Your Business to The Outside: 

  1. This could be in two months or thirty years; it is different for each business. In this planning session there are several areas the business owner needs to focus on. 
    1. Systemized business
    1. Put business in growth mode
    1. Delegate to middle management and upper management
    1. Lock the key group into the company
    1. Attract several potential buyers 
    1. Receive maximum cash for the sale
    1. Prepare to leave when you want to leave (maybe stay only if you want to stay)
    1. Plan to do something the rest of your life
    1. If you start early, you can control the whole process
  2. Tools needed: 
    1. Value Drivers
    1. Systemizing the business
    1. Golden Handcuffs for management and stay documents, (disclosure, competition, non-compete)
    1. Controlled Auction for the sale
  • #Sale of your Business from Inside the business or to your family! 
  • Make sure the new owners can run the company without you 
  • Lock in non-owners’ managers
  • Delegate your responsibilities to management
  • Due diligence to make sure you don’t end up with the business after the sale
  • Put business in growth mode
  • Guarantee income stream from the sale
  • Minimize taxes to you
  • Minimize taxes to the seller
  • Have a lifetime plan
  • Teach employee to be employers

Tools needed:

  1. Market Value Drivers 
  2. Systemizing the business
  3. Golden handcuffs for management team 
  4. Well Designed transition Plan

With the help of “zoom”, phone conferences, and the cloud, we can discuss an array of topics without parties leaving their offices.  Our designed meetings are previewed before our discussions so questions can be prepared about the subject matter.  (This creates a great give and take of the subject) 

It is my opinion that business owners should review all the key areas of their business periodically to make sure they stay “a fine-tuned machine” and maximize their future potential value of growth.  

If you wish to participate in a one-minute business assessment, to see how ‘fined tuned” you are; 

 LESS THAN A MINUTE SURVEY

Trust me: (it takes one- minute to do).  I will send you a FREE report card and summary of where you may want to focus for your business efficiency.  ALSO, along with the completion of the survey, I will send you a copy of my newly published book: “Unlocking Your Business DNA”.

[1] You can purchase this book at Amazon-kindle and paperback. Profits go to “Wounded Warrior Foundation”

Your Key Group Has Great Value And Creates A Better ROI For Your Company’s Value!

Featured by YOUR BUSINESS WORTH, posted in Business Growth and Transition, Buy and Sell Agreements, Company Wealth, Executive Benefits, Inside Sale, Key People_Or Group, Passive Ownership, Selling Your Business, Team, Value drivers, Working On Your Business

Over the years I have written of the importance of the key group in your company is, and how they enhance your profitability and company value. Not only do they make you profitable while you are running your business, but this group is the key element to selling the business for the highest potential value in the future.  

 The inside key group creates the actions that help enhance value, such as implementing value drivers and making sure they are being applied correctly. Key management groups make sure the value drivers are implemented, working, and being enhanced constantly. 

The Key group learn about the business, in some cases better than the owner. They make business more valuable. They are so talented the competition is aware of their value, and in many cases would like to recruit them.  

It would be wise for the owners to recognize the value of the person or group (key person) and put in place strategies to keep them.  

  1. Incentive programs:  The purpose of this is to keep the key person around. To continue the growth of the person within the business. He may be the person who buys, or totally runs the company.  
  1. A vested incentive program:  This is to carry out #1, but also to protect the employer from the key person leaving.  
  1. Address the potential of your exit strategy in advance. This can be in the form of a discussion about a “stay bonus.”  The “stay bonus,” is used when an owner wishes to sell the company but would like the key person to stay on with the new owner. This enhances the value of the purchase price.  
  1. Keyman/group:  Potential purchasers of the company. It is also important to recognize that the owner may be thinking of becoming a passive owner, wishing to have the key group run the company while the owner peeks their head in occasionally.  

There are many ways to address the future knowing the key group is key to your exit strategy. This can range from incentive plans, to things like stock options.  

 Existing Key Employee  

Equity Based Incentive program:  

  • Stock Bonus 
  • Stock option 
  • Stock Purchase
  • ESOP

Cash based incentives 

  • Cash bonus 
  • Deferred compensation 
  • Phantom stock bonus 
  • Stock Appreciation Right 
  • Supplemental Employee Retirement Plan (SERP) 
  • Executive Coaching Program 

Awards based on 

  • Individual key employee performance 
  • Key employee group performance 
  • Company net income growth 
  • Company sales growth 
  • Vesting Formula 
  • Forfeiture Events 

      Agreements 

  • Non-compete 
  • Non-disclosure 
  • Non-solicitation 
  • Any other agreements that will protect the owner should the key person (group), leave 

Three Key Value Drivers  and Why Do They Matter? 

Featured by YOUR BUSINESS WORTH, posted in Business Growth and Transition, Company Wealth, evaluations, Key People_Or Group, Selling Your Business, Strategies of growing business, Team, Valuation, Value drivers, Working On Your Business

Value drivers are the elements of a business (systems and procedures), which create business value.   This post will cover  Next Level Management (NLM).  In part 2, I will cover  diversified client base  and  operational systems.   

Although there are nine transferrable value drivers, I am going to concentrate of three of them. Although all the value drivers are important, the three I will discuss are considered key drivers.  

The three value drivers are key in creating appeal to prospective purchasers of the business. They are important drivers, and at the very least, drivers’ businesses must have in order to grow.   

When a new business owner asks me when they should be thinking  about their future exit of their business, my answer always is, “the day they  started their business is the time to start planning for an exit.”     

As you will see, the value drivers in most cases  need time to develop.  As we go through the three of them, you will see that they are strategies that can be implemented at once, but in many cases, need time to develop.    

Next Level Management (NLM):  Successful businesses with value, require business owners to delegate responsibilities to the management team.  NLM is particularly important because without a good management team, it would be hard to implement the other value drivers which are needed to create the maximum business potential value.i    

Finding and developing a  NLM  team is a challenge for many business owners. However, once the NLM is created, they usually become the team responsible to make the difference between where the business is now, and where the business would like to be.   The NLM is the key to  implementing the value drivers and the operation of them.   

Roadblocks for Business Owners in Developing Their Next Level Management

Many owners believe only they can keep and control the company’s success, since they built the business from infancy.   They  struggle  giving up even small types of control. The thought of not being involved in some of the daily business decisions, scares the daylights out of them, nor do they like the loss of control.    

Lack of installing the value drivers over time.   

 They spend their time working in the business as opposed to working on the business.   I call it their “Business DNA.”    Change is scary and thinking that someone else would be running the business is not consistent with their  fundamental  beliefs.  The possibility of someone else making decisions, which could build or ruin their business is too much for them to imagine.   

Fear of change.    Even if a business owner is not thinking in terms of an exit plan, they do like to think of creating business value. Once they are educated as to how value drivers affect the future value of their company, they become more open to  creating the value drivers, and making the changes.    

Misconception of owners:   Benefits derived to the business owners by installing value drivers is the result of the “full potential value of the business.”   The business grows as the business owner does less work, since the work has been handed off to the NLM.     However, owners have the common concern that installing value drivers will take too much of their time.  With proper planning, implementing the value drivers will create a more stable business, create better performance and scalability.   It is important that the owner understand the concept of developing the NLM team, so that team can create, implement, and manage  the value drivers, as opposed to the owner.     

It is possible for the owner to create the NLM where the owners have some control, and still can play a key role in the company.  Their leading role would be to delegate more responsibilities to the NLM, while focusing on other business responsibilities.    

 Many owners continue to do tasks they despise, just to keep a perceived control.  In many cases, the owner needs to take small steps in giving up control before they can start to feel more comfortable.  This is understandable since these are the things, they did to grow their business from day one of the business.     

The owner will see more growth in their company by implementing the value drivers, which will create more options for them when a future transition is a being considered.   

In my book, “Unlocking Your  Business  DNA,” I  discuss the problems business owners have working on their business as opposed to time spent working in it.  One of the factors missing is the value of creating value drivers for their business growth.   Once they realize value drivers create increasing company value, they get on board for future changes.  

 Through our discussions with business owners, we need to express to them that most future buyers will not want to buy the owner.   They want systems, management, and growth ability.       

Many owners think that they need to be involved with all the problems and issues of their company, thinking they have all the answers and the solutions.   Although this makes the owner feel in control and gives them  self-worth, it does absolutely nothing for the future value of the company, and in some cases may decrease the value.