Powering up your family company leadership team for maximum impact - fast.
Don't give it away.
The untold story of the family company legacy of service holds five key insights to the future value of the company.
1. What your clients and friends say about you when you’re not in the room;
2. How we actually get things done to serve our clients;
3. What’s left on the table for our company to increase market share;
4. Why our clients buy from us, and whether it has anything to do with our competition;
5. Who the rising stars are in the company and the family who already have strengths to help guide this company with you.
In 1997, I learned these chapters of a family company story over the course of one year. It was the first time in 25 years we had organized the collective wisdom of people throughout our company. We leaped forward with the tens of millions of dollars in new client sales with a more valuable offer. We acquired another family company, our fierce competitor. When I met leaders from that competitor company, I learned the true story of what made each of our companies so strong, and why we were always fighting for the same clients. Both of us were stuck in thinking clients wanted to buy the evidence of our testing services, and we were hustling to create the evidence with competitive pricing. We learned our clients valued our integrity as much as our service outcomes, and what they valued most was our company knowledge. We learned clients wanted us to have a seat at the table for their product development and design with our insights, so they could make better decisions faster for their own company growth with new products. In the four years that followed, we put these insights into action with great people among locations in 60 countries. We recognized and elevated people within the company who were motivated to guide this company for another generation of growth, without compromising our key value of integrity.
Company Value is never a moment in time. Great value lies within the untold story of the business, and the true experiences of those clients you serve now and those ones out there on the horizon.
You don’t have to be visionary to realize your company’s future, just be strategic…see something and do something about it.
To bring forward all you’ve learned so far, as a whole company, to recognize what to do next: Evoke Growth.
Be the best and do just that.
If you’ve struggled with growth, and that feeling of care fatigue in your business, it’s not your fault.
We’ve been taught that our value lies in defending our past. As a company, our value lies in the number of years in business and the past financial statements. As people, our value lies in the skills and job titles that we’ve earned over the years.
While that historical performance is valuable, what’s most important is how we use it as a perspective to create the future value for our company.
As a company it’s critical to build that future value now, so you can pay yourself what your worth now as an owner, while enjoying the life you choose, and collect a generous payout whether you choose to sell your company or transition this great company to the next generation of leaders. (and you may be the first Chairperson of your company)
Remember that expression from the 2007 financial crisis about companies that were “too big to fail?”
Some of the key executives of those companies still received their “golden parachutes” even after their companies were bailed out.
Well, owners like you and me have been on the outside looking in because it doesn’t matter if we fail, right?
We know family business owners like us have to earn everything.
Some owners are enjoying the experience of leading their companies, relating people to performance and the untold story in the company.
They’re paying themselves what they’re worth today, and building companies that will continue earning a lot of money for many years while sustaining a company legacy of service for generations to come.
Build for growth and always be ready to sell.
You have a choice.
You can continue the struggle with the nostalgia of the company, and maybe a few expressions of platitudes and excuses.
Or, you can create your unique position in the marketplace supported by your next leadership team who understand the value of their company like a publicly traded one.
Only those who make this important shift in their behavior will recognize the joy of a business that will last for generations without sacrificing joy in your life, with people you love, right now.
Other people will be left out.
There are millions of dollars at stake, with hopes and dreams only in thoughts of “Maybe one day…”
Many owners will never see the money or those experiences because they’re still living in the past, or relying on serendipity.
Too much time defending their expertise and trying to relive those stories from the past.
But, the power to win that money lies in your ability to reflect on those experiences, learn the key lessons from them, and recognize what to do next.
Those lessons will reveal to you what is most valuable to your clients, and what you can do better than anyone else.
That’s how to think like someone who isn’t just making a living, but building a great company legacy someone would want to buy from you.
Because you’ve built something so well positioned and profitable, with people who work together as stakeholders, it would be easier for someone to buy the business from you than build one like it themselves.
What I learned all those years ago is if you commit to this process, you may find the inspiration in the plan and the people to avoid the sale of your company and continue grow this valuable entity instead.
I’ve shown you how you could increase your company revenue by millions of dollars with a process that will make your company stronger than ever.
You can expand the boundaries of what’s possible.
The decision is yours to make.
You have three options:
Number 1: Hang in there and do what you did yesterday.
If you like the hustle, and defending your expertise everyday, I wish you the best making a living.
Number 2: Do this yourself.
Try to carve out time to ask yourself questions you’ve never asked before, and then try to figure out the answers in your spare time.
Maybe you’ll add some opinions from friends at a networking event.
Number 3: Join me to grow with a process.
Even with all of your expertise, I think you’re smarter than you think you are. Think about that for a few seconds.
Organizing your company book of knowledge, where you get all of the credit as you create one chapter after another with your stakeholders, and a few allies along the way.
Many owners say that they want to build a business, but they end up in a defensive position worrying about not losing something everyday.
But, there are fewer owners who realize that growth is about organizing confidence and humility.
Confidence in all you’ve learned from what you’ve done so far.
Humility in recognizing there is much more you haven’t seen yet.
Organizing our collective wisdom to achieve better than ever outcomes, without relying on serendipity.
It’s what clients, and other battle buddies I’ve organized together, have proven with me over the years.
Since you’ve stayed with me this far, I believe that you care about a company legacy.
If you believe your company legacy is valuable and you don’t want to give it away, book a meeting and share your purpose with me.
Looking to chat first?
Let’s talk about what you want next.