Sweat, Scale, Sell

Pavlo Phitidis

Description

An astonishing 94.6% of businesses fail to sell. They close at an enormous cost to the owner, their family, their staff and the economy. Most business owners realise too late that there are only two destinations for any business: a sale or closure. You’ve got to build to $ell.

Sweat, Scale, $ell shares real business-building stories about how ordinary business owners took charge of their fate using the Asset of Value™ method. With Pavlo Phitidis, they Sweated to reshape their business to be relevant to a changing world; they built a solid foundation for Scale; and then they pressed hard to ramp up growth in preparation for $ale to create a business any buyer would want.

Pavlo draws on 25 years of direct experience in conceptualising and building businesses across four continents. Having started, built and sold 12 businesses generating in excess of $300m, he founded the Asset of Value™ method, a practical approach to build a winning business.

As co-founder of Aurik, he has worked with over 2 000 established businesses across most sectors in the economy, from family businesses to partnerships to sole business owners.

Sweat, Scale, $ell is audaciously optimistic as it shows every business owner and entrepreneur where to find growth in a no-growth economy, make an impact and secure big returns.

Sujets

• Business Development
• Employabilité, métiers et formations
• Service innovation
• Selling
• Strategic management
• General officer
• Economics
• Development
• Business
• General
• Sales

Informations

• Publié par: Pan Macmillan South Africa
• Date de parution: 01 octobre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781770106741
• Langue: English

Extrait

Sweat, Scale, $ell
Build Your Business into an Asset of Value™
Pavlo Phitidis
pavlophitidis
pavlobiz
pavlophitidis
MACMILLAN

Note from the author
I have recreated events and conversations from my memories of them. In order to maintain their anonymity in some instances, I have changed the names of individuals, as well as some identifying characteristics and details.
First published in 2019 by Pan Macmillan South Africa
Private Bag X19,
Northlands
Johannesburg
2116
www.panmacmillan.co.za
ISBN 978-1-77010-673-4
eISBN 978-1-77010-674-1
© Pavlo Phitidis 2019
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owners and the publisher of this edition of the book.
Editing by Wesley Thompson
Proofreading by Sean Fraser
Design and typesetting by Triple M Design
Cover design by publicide
Printed and bound by

To my business partner and co-creator at Aurik, Carien Engelbrecht, who took a chance on a dream, and with her capable hands and always-on brain, helped shape it and build it into something that will change the world.
To the many business owners we’ve worked with, whose troubles and successes, trust and belief, co-created what we have today to the advantage of the many others we will work with in future.
To the growing team of Aurikites, boisterous and considered, passionate and pragmatic, in the past and the future, for breathing life into what we collectively do.
And to Jack, my good friend, whose courage, creativity and care in building his Asset of Value significantly shaped and inspired Aurik.


Contents
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1 Failing to Build an Asset of Value
Chapter 2 A Business is Like a Ship
Chapter 3 Defining an Asset of Value
Chapter 4 Building an Asset of Value
Chapter 5 Purpose and Positioning
Chapter 6 Building a System of Delivery
Chapter 7 Your Team
Chapter 8 Your Time
Chapter 9 Accelerating Growth
Chapter 10 Innovation
Chapter 11 The Asset of Value Formula
Chapter 12 Measuring an Asset of Value
Chapter 13 Buffett is Buying
Chapter 14 Different Kinds of Business Sales
Conclusion : You are in Control
Notes


Preface
A terrifying reality often discovered too late by business owners is that 94.6% of businesses started never get sold. 1 Yet, there are only two destinations for every business: sale or closure!
Businesses close at tremendous cost to owners and their family, staff, suppliers and customers. This is a woeful end to something that has taken courage to start, creativity to do differently and care to sustain.
Some business owners realise this danger earlier than others, but most don’t realise it until it is too late. And time runs out. In fact, it runs away from you in your 40s but sprints from you in your 50s. It is simply not enough to believe that because you have invested all your funds and energy into your business it will deliver an eventual payday. Whereas you need idealism to start and build a business, you need pragmatism to ensure you have built a saleable asset.
Realising that your business might not be a ticket to a safe and comfortable retirement starts with fear but morphs into doubt over time, infecting the essence of who you are, what you will become and how you see the world.
Having witnessed family members fall into this trap, and motivated to help others avoid it, I have spent the last 25 years building businesses. With my business partner Carien Engelbrecht, at Aurik Business Accelerator we have built 12 businesses and helped nearly 2 000 business owners across four continents develop a new perspective on how to build a business that is more asset than emotion, a business that can someday be sold.
There is a remarkable amount of information out there on business strategy. However, most of it is superficial, repeating well-worn, tired advice, making for shallow reading, and propped up with jargon and theoretical swagger but lacking in practical application.
Business owners are practical people. Yet, we are also deeply emotional, and it is our attitudes – how we choose to look at our businesses – that make for success. Why you do what you do as a business owner – monthly, weekly, daily – holds the key to building your business into a saleable asset.
As a business owner, time is your most valuable resource. You want access to a method that works and is presented simply, acting as a guide to help you build your business.
For this reason, I have tried to present our method through stories. Stories work best for us as entrepreneurs. It’s through story that we can truly see ourselves. As emotional beings building our dreams, reading the stories of others allows us to reflect, gain insight, practise foresight and, in a non-defensive manner, embrace the most certain path to success.
We start with Aurik’s story – how Carien and I found our purpose in building businesses and helping owners develop their own enterprises into saleable assets, and in so doing discovered a method, a practical set of activities and steps, and a mindset of building businesses that we call the Asset of Value approach.
The Asset of Value method differs from most others we are taught about how to build a business. An Asset of Value business is a customer-centric enterprise that enjoys consistent revenue, is built on systems that operate smoothly without you, the business owner, being constantly required to get involved, and is supported by a reliable and purposeful team. It is a business that frees your time to focus on growth and innovation. And finally, it is your greatest wealth-generating asset, a business that is ultimately saleable.
We move on to Clive’s story, which demonstrates some of the causes and consequences of failing to build an Asset of Value. On the face of it, Clive was a very successful business owner operating in the IT sector. He had a nice home, fully paid off, a holiday home, and had funded his children’s education, even managing to send one of his sons to university to study Medicine. But on closer inspection, Clive was a desperate man running full speed down a runway with little tar left and a cliff on the other side.
Then there is Jack, a 54-year-old baker who wanted to sell his business that he began when he was 29 years old. Through Jack’s story, we see how building a business into an Asset of Value is not easy and takes time. His journey with me evinces the actions, logic, and mindset needed to build an Asset of Value. Jack’s turnover grew from an eight- to a ten-figure number in nine years.
Ismail works with us through a process of understanding how to rebuild his luxury-product retail business into a problem-solving investment business that grows his revenue annually despite a global recession and a persistent low-growth environment in South Africa.
Themba and I follow a similar journey. The story of how he turned his pump business into a digital one, focused on solving problems for customers rather than simply offering them a service, demonstrates how to build a modern business that can scale even in a depressed economy and a sector fraught with price competition. Themba’s business developed a distinct advantage, separating him from his competitors, and would eventually fetch a much higher price.
James and Annie, whose business supplied jewellery display products and which competed with businesses that relied on Chinese imports, reshaped and grew their business by solving their customers’ growth problem.
We live through Oren’s pain, frustration and rage of trying to find the right skills and talent to support the growth of his data-services business.
There is also Patrick, in the construction industry, who found a way to give his business a distinct advantage by narrowing his focus, but who chose to fail by chasing revenue and not learning to say no to all who walked through his doors.
Through all these stories, we tackle the following challenges, among others: How to create a unique business identity that your customers value and that distinguishes you from your competitors in a noisy market; How to create a strategy that remains relevant and resilient in a constantly changing socio-political and economic environment; How to create a systems-driven business that generates consistent leads and customers and, through that, steady revenue; How to eliminate operational chaos and ensure the simple, scalable and reliable delivery of your services and products; How to get the right people to do the right thing at the right time, including bringing your business strategy into the hands, minds and hearts of your employees; How to manufacture time for yourself through the design of your business; How to invest your time in developing smart strategies and performing activities that accelerate the growth and value of your business; How to craft innovation into your business’s design so that it deepens value for your customers, reduces your chaos and costs and creates revenue to support your business valuation; and How businesses are valued, bought and sold.
Through these stories of ordinary business owners, people like you and me, we will see what actions to take and what mindset to adopt in order to build successful businesses. The lessons that emerge through these stories are accessible and relevant to every business owner, irrespective of the size of your business and the sector you operate in, and you can learn from and apply them in your business immediately. The Asset of Value method breaks bui