Whether you are starting, buying, or running a business, one of the most popular questions you’ll be asked is “What’s your plan?” Almost like a new college student who is often asked, “what’s your major”, your response as a business owner might be a canned response of saying what you’re supposed to say. Things like, “we’re planning to grow by 22% this year and double over the next 5 years…”. Or maybe you’ll be a little more honest and say things like, “Yeah, I don’t bother with those business plans. I spend my time doing stuff instead.”

This is a great question, and it all starts with figuring out where you want to go first and then we figure out which path to take to get there.  And just like any good road trip there are multiple options for getting to your destination depending on what you’d like to see on the way or are you just interested in getting there as fast as possible?  What about accidents, road work, and detours?  Do you think similar things can be expected when you’re trying to get to your ultimate destination in your business?  Of course!

So is now the time?  Is this the offer you can’t refuse?  Has every day become a grind?  Is running your business no longer fun?  Depending on how you answer these and several other questions will determine whether it’s time to sell or not.  

What happens when you decide it’s time to retire and step away from your business?  We find most people, including business owners, don’t have a good answer for this question.  Too many will throw out platitudes along the lines that they’ll spend more time with family and friends, traveling, vacationing, playing golf or tennis.  The list goes on, but in reality they’ve never really given this question much thought.

At the end of the day, we all have a mess in our businesses and our lives. The question becomes who do we share what parts of that mess with when it comes to our business. As the owner of a small business it’s likely you will go months or years without having to Present yourself or share your story.

During the show today we focused on a couple of examples of organizations that have gone through successful rebuilds. One you might be familiar with, the Cleveland Browns. The others are likely more like your business in that they are smaller and lesser known. We used our 7 Keys to Success framework to help explain how these changes were accomplished through the Organizational Plan for the business as well as balancing short-term results with long-term success.

So what kind of memories do you have of the library?  If you’re like most people, it goes back to your early childhood days and story time.  Perhaps you rediscovered the library when you had your own kids.  Many of us spent time in the library during high school or college.  But chances are that once you got into the business world you stopped visiting your local library altogether.

So what kind of memories do you have of the library? If you’re like most people, it goes back to your early childhood days and story time. Perhaps you rediscovered the library when you had your own kids. Many of us spent time in the library during high school or college. But chances are that once you got into the business world you stopped visiting your local library altogether.

Do you ever feel like a fraud? Or do you worry that “they’re” going to figure out that I don’t belong or that I didn’t earn this? There are hundreds of these types of questions you might be wrestling with. For some business owners we find these thoughts will often dominate their day-to-day interactions. Other business owners have done a good enough job over the years of either ignoring most of these voices or they have found ways to quiet the voices so they aren’t distracting or even paralyzing.

One thing that strikes fear in the heart of many business owners is having a meeting with their banker. It’s not that these banker types tend to be intimidating or mean, it usually has more to do with how comfortable the business owner is with their financials. As the owner, the last thing you want to do is to say the wrong thing to your banker. Can’t the banker do all sorts of terrible things to you and your business? Like pull your line of credit? Or not approve the loan for that new piece of equipment?