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1-Page Summary of Built to Sell
Overview
If you’re an entrepreneur with a small business, you might want to sell it someday. To get the best possible price for your company, you should structure it in a way that will make it attractive to potential buyers. You can learn how to do this by reading about Alex Stapleton’s experience of selling his marketing agency through Ted Gordon’s guidance.
In addition, you’ll learn why it’s important for every salesperson to have a co-worker; what management should do in order to keep their employees happy and loyal; and how to find a broker that will get the best deal on your company.
Big Idea #1: Business success lies in specialization in a single service.
If you’re an entrepreneur who has just started a business, how can you make it successful? Should you focus on one service or take any opportunity that comes your way – even if it requires services outside of your specialty?
Some people would take every client they can get. But that’s not the right strategy for long-term success. Here’s why: A focus on one service allows clients to see the company’s core strengths and will make them come back with specific problems because they know you’re better at solving those problems than other companies.
It’s important to be the best at something. When you’re the only one in your industry, it gives you an advantage because your clients can’t go somewhere else for that service. If they get a good experience from working with you, they’ll tell other people about their experience and recommend your services to them.
Specializing allows you to hire the best people for the job.
Why do large companies hire generalists instead of specialists? Large firms have to hire experts for different fields. They can’t afford to hire as many experts, so they hire generalists who are able to execute a variety of tasks.
Companies that hire a lot of people to work on different projects can’t produce the best possible products. They won’t be able to compete with companies who employ experts in each field. However, smaller firms can use specialists who are very good at their jobs and make excellent quality products. This will allow them to negotiate better deals with clients.
Eventually, you won’t have to micromanage your company because everyone will be responsible for their own tasks.
Big Idea #2: For long-term success, build a business that can run without you.
When you start a business, it’s natural to feel ownership. So when the company is young and small, the founder takes part in almost every aspect of its operation. However, the business can’t grow unless customers don’t associate it entirely with its founder. When this happens, what should take place? As a founder of a company that bears all risks itself, you naturally want to make sure that your employees aren’t making mistakes.
So, you meet with every client and oversee all financial negotiations. As a result, your clients get used to talking about everything with you in person. For them, you represent the whole company. But this approach will lead to problems as the business grows larger. You won’t be able to manage it effectively if you spend all your time meeting with clients face-to-face or on the phone.
For example, Alex, the designer of our logo, was struggling. This issue arose because he met with every client in person. He didn’t have time to sit down and speak with other employees about it or figure out what exactly they needed from him when doing their job for each individual client. As a result of this problem his company had lots of rework occurring within its production process that ended up taking away more of its valuable resources than was necessary since employees weren’t tailoring their work towards each individual customer’s needs like they could have been if Alex took into account what specific thinking the designers would do after hearing from themselves on these issues.”
