The Fearless Founder How to Leave Your Business Without Losing Your Legacy With Perpetual Equity
Overview
If you've never put your entire life on the line pursuing a brilliant, obsessive or even insane business dream, this eBook is not for you. However, if you are one of the nearly six million entrepreneurs in the UK that has created employment for anything up to 250 people and achieved an annual turnover of between one to ten million pounds, this booklet may interest you. And if you are at a point where you struggle to recall the passion and purpose that sent you off on your wild adventure through the unforgiving business landscape, this little publication could change your life. Because you've read this far, you might be the kind of businessperson we want to help successfully exit your business with a seamless succession plan.
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Your Business A Potted History
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The Birth of the Idea
Before we go on, let's go back. Take yourself back to those early days when the idea of starting your own business seemed like the most natural, the most bizarre, the most exciting, or most ridiculous thing that had ever entered your head.
Recall for a moment, that rush of blood to the head and that pounding heartbeat as the concept took hold of your very being and dragged you into a passionate pursuit.
Falling in Love
Revisit those early meetings with sceptical bankers, disinterested financiers, anxious friends or nervous family members. Do you remember the enthusiasm that poured out of you? The sense of destiny that drove you. The sheer force of will that powered you through all the barriers and helped you overcome every obstacle in your way. That was you falling in love with your business idea. And it was contagious. It must have been because somehow you got other people to follow you into the dark forest of unknown fortune.
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The Honeymoon Period Oh, the bliss of those endless days and elastic nights when you spent every hour of every weekday, weekend, and public holiday working on your business! You couldn't get enough of each other. The more you gave, the more your business gave back in returns. You grew together. You became as one. You invested all of your energy and enthusiasm and passion into realising the improbable dream of You Inc. That was the honeymoon.
Settling Down And later still, when the business was up on its feet and demand was outgrowing supply, your reputation was rocketing, work was flowing in, and the word was getting out. There was a make-or-break moment when you had to scale up or let people down. So you hired more people. More employees in more specialised tasks, perhaps, and then more managerial expertise to help navigate the unpredictable tides and undertows of operational fluidity. That was the period of adolescence.
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Growing Up
It was a lovely moment, but it wasn't a great surprise when you found yourself at the head of that new boardroom table welcoming another member to a management team brimming with beaming smiles and hearty handshakes. The business was ticking along nicely. Sure, there was the occasional bump in the road. You might have lost a longstanding client to a competitor. You may have had to tackle and resolve unpleasant staffing issues. Perhaps you worried about the capital outlay required to expand a particular part of the operation or invest in vital new machinery. There could have been times when you arrived home glad to see the back of any particularly tough day, or week, or month, or financial year even. That was when the business had matured.
Here's where you are now. You've put some of the best years of your life so far into a business you are proud to call your own. It's stable, successful, and has growth potential. But somehow, you're just not feeling it in the same way you used to. The steps you need to take to move it to the next level seem daunting, exhausting, or just not worth the personal sacrifice. Your mind has wandered in meetings, and you don't bound out of bed with the same old energy and enthusiasm. Your management team is still doing a sterling job, but you doubt they'd be able to run the place if you stepped back. But that's what you want more than anything. That same itch you had way back when you created your business is pulling your focus in another direction.
Moving On
Maybe you just want to retire, call it a day, rest and relax and enjoy the financial rewards you've worked so hard to amass. Perhaps there's another venture you want to get into, another avenue you want to explore, a list of life experiences you've been putting off for years. It's okay; this is not giving up, being unfaithful to your vision or turning your back on your people. This is the catalyst to consolidating your legacy.
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Kicking the Can
But what are you going to do about it? What can you do? How do you move out of the business without letting it fall apart? What will happen to the people who depend on you for their livelihoods? The clients or customers that love doing business with you? The management team that has worked so hard to follow your leadership and realise your vision? Well, you could do nothing. You could just keep on thinking about it, taking no action. You could "kick the can down the road" as our American cousins have it. You could let the weeks, months and years tick by until some external influence intervenes and forces your hand.
Making the Call Or you could do what you and your business were born to do. You could take control and change your world for the better. You could explore the many ways to exit the business with a seamless and successful succession plan in place. You could work with a partner who knows exactly what you're going through. Experts with the empathy and experience to protect what you have built and unlock the next phase of your business growth. You got to where you are today by making the right calls; your next call could be your best ever.
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Said and Done You might think that this is easier said than done, and you'd be right. There is no quick and easy way to preserve the innate power of a thriving, mature business while preparing it for potential growth. But that's what we do for a living. It's the financial, structural, organisational and managerial challenge that gets us up in the morning. It's why we only invest in the future of businesses we love as much as you do. Once you say you want to go, we come in and get on with the doing bit.
We do this by working closely and respectfully with your management team because we believe that if they helped you get the business this far, they could help us take it where it can go next.
Empowering Your Team
We also think the best mergers and acquisitions empower managers and employees to grow with the business they helped to build. This is how we can sleep at night.
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Taking it Personally
Because we understand the personal stake you have invested in your business, we take a very human approach to how we do ours. Replacing the hands-on founder of a business is never as straightforward as a name change on the office door. It takes a lot of emotional intelligence to settle the nerves (and stomachs) of a management team that depends on their most senior executive's charismatic leadership. But it can be done! While every business is unique, and every succession process is different, fundamental pillars to our investment philosophy never vary.
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THE PERPETUAL EQUITY INVESTMENT PROCESS Your 3-Steps to a Lucrative Legacy
Step 1. Identify. We establish a rapport, get to know your business, motivations and requirements, and help uncover your management issues and succession opportunities.
Step 2. Propose. If there is a mutual fit, we further research your business and sector and outline how we view the investment opportunity and a way forward.
Step 3. Agree. If you are happy with the proposal, we draw up a formal investment contract and transfer funds within days of signature.
THE PERPETUAL EQUITY SUCCESSION PLAN Your 3-Phase Approach to Perpetual Growth
Phase 1. Respect Because we only invest in successful businesses that we like, we don't change too much too quickly.
Phase 2. Refresh Working closely with your management team, we build appropriate systems and processes to identify challenges and leverage future growth opportunities.
Phase 3. Re-frame Once the succession is complete, and the business is booming, we monitor our investment through regular dialogue with the management team. With Perpetual Equity
Congratulations! If you got this far, you have shown the kind of commitment and interest that deserves a free 30-minute personal consultation with Jon. As well as picking up on the insights in this booklet, Jon will also pick your brain to delve deeper into your business and your motivations for considering an exit. See it as a free executive coaching session where you can talk openly and honestly about your business and the possibility of preparing it for perpetual growth. Even if you change your mind about leaving, you'll end the call with a fresh perspective.
Thank you for investing this time with us. We look forward to hearing from you later today. (Or wait, is that the sound of a can being kicked down the road?)
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Contact Jon today! 07786320812 jon@perpetualequity.co.uk
Perpetual Equity Your Partner in Seamless Succession Planning