{"id":333,"date":"2012-06-12T05:00:48","date_gmt":"2012-06-12T12:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/myersthoughts.com\/?p=333"},"modified":"2015-01-28T12:58:45","modified_gmt":"2015-01-28T20:58:45","slug":"business-growth-rate-deciding-selling-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/business-growth-rate-deciding-selling-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Business Growth Rate and Selling Your Business (To Sell or Not to Sell &#8211; a series)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The business growth rate is obviously a huge factor in a decision to sell or not to sell your business.\u00a0 <a title=\"To Sell Your Business or Not To Sell Your Business \u2014 That is the Question\" href=\"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/selling-business-decision\/\">This post is next in my series &#8220;To Sell or Not to Sell Your Business&#8221;.<\/a>\u00a0Obviously, the higher the sustainable growth rate that has been demonstrated by the business, the more value will be created by your business for yourself or for a future owner.\u00a0 As I have mentioned, my natural bias is to not sell a good business because they can be difficult to find.\u00a0 This is even more so when\u00a0a strong business is growing. This is pretty apparent and logical.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, here are some other things to think about:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Growth is critical to selling your business.<\/strong>\u00a0 It is much easier to sell a growing business.\u00a0 If you are planning to sell, it is highly preferred to sell when you have a several year track record of sustainable growth.\u00a0 On the other hand, if your business is declining, it is going to be very difficult to find a buyer that is comfortable with the decline and be\u00a0able to possibly improve the situation.\u00a0 Buyers need growth to take the risk in buying a company.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Pay attention to the trends in your annual growth rate.<\/strong>\u00a0 Is your year-over-year growth rate increasing or declining?\u00a0 Try to understand deeply why the trend is accelerating or why it may be declining or why it has been steady?\u00a0 You will want to be prepared to get the buyers excited about the accelerating growth rate or comfortable with a declining growth rate.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Does future growth require the same things (resources, strategy, skill set, etc.) as historical growth?<\/strong>\u00a0 Sometimes, you will be able to execute the same growth strategy well into the future.\u00a0 Other times, future growth will require an investment that will diminish financial results for a time or require a different strategy or skill set to implement.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Review the data around growth rates.\u00a0<\/strong> In the process of owning your business, you probably know the key internal metrics that have driven the growth and success of your business.\u00a0 And, you probably have kept your eye on some external data that impacts your industry or your business.\u00a0 What is the data telling you about the future?\u00a0 Will the trends that are supporting your growth maintain themselves or not?<\/li>\n<li><strong>Listen to your intuition.\u00a0<\/strong> To me, one&#8217;s intuition is your mind applying your business and life experience onto the present situation.\u00a0 It should be listened to.\u00a0 If all the data is telling you one thing and your intuition is telling you another, it is worth pondering the disconnect to try and determine why your intuition is different.<\/li>\n<li><strong>If selling, have an attractive, untapped growth initiative &#8220;shovel ready&#8221;.<\/strong>\u00a0 If you want to sell, I think it is helpful to have an underlying, sustainable growth rate but also have a new attractive growth initiative that has evidence of success but has not been fully realized.\u00a0 This allows a buyer to envision an upside scenario that every buyer yearns to find.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Larger businesses receive higher multiples.<\/strong>\u00a0 Another positive to retaining ownership of a growing business is that larger businesses get a bonus of receiving higher multiples from a buyer.\u00a0 This is for many reasons, and if things are equal, may be a reason to hold your business for a few years more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Since I am (sort of) younger and in the mindset of <a title=\"Greybull Stewardship Small Business Investment Opportunities | Business Opportunity, Business Partner\" href=\"https:\/\/greybullstewardship.com\/greybull-investment-small-business\/\">investing in strong businesses<\/a>, I have a natural bias to retain ownership in great businesses.\u00a0 Please recognize that I have that bias.\u00a0 On the other hand, balancing things out is that we never know what is around the corner in life or in business.\u00a0 Here are some other posts related to selling your business.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"To Sell Your Business or Not To Sell Your Business \u2014 That is the Question\" href=\"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/selling-business-decision\/\">To Sell or Not To Sell Your Business, That is the Question (a series)<\/a>, April 22, 2012<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Company Founder Regrets Sale to Traditional Private Equity\" href=\"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/business-sold-private-equity-regretted\/\">Company Founder Regrets Sale to Traditional Private Equit<\/a>y, April 25, 2012<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Assessing the Width of Your Business Moat (To Sell or Not To Sell)\" href=\"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/business-moat-assess-width\/\">Assessing the Width of Your Business Moat (To Sell or Not to Sell, a series)<\/a>, May 14, 2012<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Best Time Ever to Own a Business\" href=\"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/best-time-own-business\/\">Best Time Ever to Own a Busines<\/a>s, May 23, 2012<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Business Purchase &amp; Sale Agreements (a series)\" href=\"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/business-purchase-sale-agreements\/\">Business Purchase &amp; Sale Agreements (a series)<\/a>, May 29, 2012<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Three Cheers to the Lazerows and Buddy Media\" href=\"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/salesforce-purchase-buddy-media-lazerow\/\">Three Cheers to the Lazerows and Buddy Media<\/a>, June 7, 2012<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Have Your CEO (and Management Team) In Place (To Sell or Not to Sell Your Business \u2014 a series)\" href=\"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/ceo-management-team-selling-business\/\">Have Your CEO and Management Team in Place<\/a>, June 28, 2012<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"postmeta_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"postmeta classifications small\"><span class=\"post_categories\">Categories:<a href=\"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/category\/business-growth-and-business-opportunities\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Business Growth &amp; Opportunities<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/category\/sell-a-business-or-buy-a-business\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Sell or Buy a Business<\/a><\/span><br \/><span class=\"post_tags\">Tags:<a href=\"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/tag\/business-growth-opportunities\/\" rel=\"tag\">Business Growth &amp; Opportunities<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/tag\/business-growth-strategy\/\" rel=\"tag\">Business Growth Strategy<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/tag\/buying-a-business\/\" rel=\"tag\">Buying a Business<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/tag\/growing-a-business\/\" rel=\"tag\">Growing a Business<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/tag\/growth-rate\/\" rel=\"tag\">Growth Rate<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/tag\/sell-a-business\/\" rel=\"tag\">Sell a Business<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/tag\/selling-your-business\/\" rel=\"tag\">Selling your business<\/a><br \/><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The business growth rate is obviously a huge factor in a decision to sell or not to sell your business.\u00a0 This post is next in my series &#8220;To Sell or Not to Sell Your Business&#8221;.\u00a0Obviously, the higher the sustainable growth rate that has been demonstrated&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/business-growth-rate-deciding-selling-business\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,11],"tags":[79,91,57,90,71,87,25],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Business Growth Strategy, Business Growth Rate, Opportunities | Mason Myers Business Blog for Owners, Investors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Business owner and investor Mason Myers discusses business growth strategy, business growth rate and opportunities on his business blog, masonmyers.com.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/business-growth-rate-deciding-selling-business\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Business Growth Strategy, Business Growth Rate, Opportunities | Mason Myers Business Blog for Owners, Investors\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Business owner and investor Mason Myers discusses business growth strategy, business growth rate and opportunities on his business blog, masonmyers.com.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@masonlmyers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@masonlmyers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mason Myers\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/business-growth-rate-deciding-selling-business\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/business-growth-rate-deciding-selling-business\/\",\"name\":\"Business Growth Strategy, Business Growth Rate, Opportunities | Mason Myers Business Blog for Owners, Investors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-06-12T12:00:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-01-28T20:58:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/efbf4e28b9f46a9b2ae855d03197ab3f\"},\"description\":\"Business owner and investor Mason Myers discusses business growth strategy, business growth rate and opportunities on his business blog, masonmyers.com.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/business-growth-rate-deciding-selling-business\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/business-growth-rate-deciding-selling-business\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/business-growth-rate-deciding-selling-business\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Business Growth Rate and Selling Your Business (To Sell or Not to Sell &#8211; 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