Founders often say that what made them successful was determination, sacrifice, and hard work. Others will express their desire to solve some sort of problem, their curiosity, or even sometimes luck.
But it was their discipline that helped many of them create, grow and sell their businesses for a premium.
The discipline to focus and execute their original vision, despite the many shiny balls and inducements to go off course and try to be something for everyone.
This discipline to focus can best be summarised in the following quote by Steve Jobs:
People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas there are. You have to pick carefully. I'm actually as proud of the things we haven't done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to one thousand things.
Exit Discipline
More importantly, they had the discipline to grow and run their company with one stakeholder in mind – their future buyer.
After all, the buyer of a company wants to be confident of the soundness and potential return of any investment he makes.
Therefore, the owner should focus on turning his company into an investable asset. They need to ask themselves the following:
- Can I discipline myself to build my company into a more attractive and valuable investment every day?
- Am I helping my company grow its profits and reduce its perceived risk?
- Would a future buyer pay top money for my company?
- Would they have peace of mind if they did so?
If they cannot answer Yes to all four questions, they will likely leave most or all their money on the table when they try to sell one day.
How discipline, focus and the ability to say No led to a 7-Figure Exit
Andy Cabasso, a law graduate, and his partner Sam Brodie, a web developer and SEO specialist, founded Jurispage in 2013.
The company had one core mission: To create websites to help law firms with their marketing.
The founders also had the vision to build and grow a valuable business, with a critical focus on customers paying for their services on a recurring basis.
Specifically, their customers would have to host the completed websites on Jurispage servers. This hosting generated recurring revenue and was more valuable than being paid one-off fees for web design.
The founders committed to their vision and refused to provide services to companies in other industries or create websites that somebody else would host.
It all paid off…
Three years later, they sold their company for seven figures to Uptime Legal, a technology and practice management software provider for legal firms.
Their discipline in focusing on their niche (law firms) and building on a value-added basis (recurring revenues) made their business valuable and attractive to a much larger buyer.
Many profitable companies do not sell because there was a discipline to grow the business, but not the discipline to focus on the needs of a potential buyer.
Both disciplines are crucial if you want to sell your business one day for top money.
Do you want to improve the value of your business?
Simply contact us at Sophiall. We will get in touch to discuss our proven methodology to maximise the value of your business.
Many thanks to John Warrillow and BuiltoSell Inc., who provided the background for the Jurispage acquisition.