A fascinating result of doing due diligence first, is to learn that many of those clients really don’t want to sell at all, but they have run into a problem they just can’t solve, and “Selling Out” appears to be their best and often, their only option.

When presented with a solution to the challenges they’re struggling with, most will jump at the opportunity to “fix their business” rather then sell it.

Most small business owners suffer from what I call “the Coke Bottle Syndrome.” Think of one of those early coke bottles that were about 7 ounces, the glass ones where there were a lot of curves in the glass and the bottles were tinted green.

Now picture your business as being housed inside a giant coke bottle. The curved glass and the green tint distort all the light that comes into your business. Now you’re quite busy in your business and you don’t have time to look outside often, and you seldom bother looking outside because nothing is really clear.

When you run into a problem you have never encountered before, you find it difficult to search out a solution. You’re too busy to take the time to get out of the bottle to search for a solution. Then, you reach the conclusion that the problem cannot be solved, at least by you, so you decide to sell.

A Business Intermediary generally sits in the corner of the warehouse looking at your coke bottle, sitting in a case of 23 other coke bottles, on a shipping pallet of maybe 50 cases, sitting in a pile of pallets amongst a hundred of other products sitting on piles of pallets. The outsider sees things from a totally different paradigm.

• Simply finding a new bank, or remortgaging your property or re-amortizing some term loans can solve many problems.
• Other times, perhaps an investor or new financial partner can make a difference. There is now the beginning of a whole new source of financing opportunities currently known as recaps. A private placement or an Initial Public Offering could also provide a solution.
• Often we find the owner is so overloaded that he/she is suffering from burnout. A relatively simple solution is available for those situations.
• Sometime we need to empower your employees and as a result, they’ll enable you to develop solutions internally.
• Other times, the business has grown beyond your ability to manage it. Hiring a manager to provide new skills and support will address the problems satisfactorily.
• We’re finding more and more, that the son or daughter really would like to be operating the family business, but has been unable, for whatever reason, to communicate effectively with the parent who operates the business – and has never had the training and orientation that’s so important to success.
• Research and planning in the business are often lacking, and when assessed by an outside consultant, many opportunities are discovered that the owner has been “too busy” to recognize or take advantage of.
• Taking the time to clearly identify and understand the problems and challenges will result in “miraculous discoveries” that can make a huge difference.
• Often the solution is not to sell, but to buy out a competitor or a near competitor to obtain additional product lines, customers, employees, capacity or location, etc.
• We’ve found solutions as simple as giving a long-term employee more authority and responsibility will make a huge difference.
• Sometimes the best solution is creating a strategic alliance with some other business to address a problem or a project.
• The expansion program of my business was extraordinarily challenging until we implemented a program of “local partnerships.”
• Advisory boards are a wonderful way to bring many minds in to tackle a seemingly insurmountable problem. Funny thing about those “old guys” on the advisory board – they have solved problems similar to yours many years ago.
• If you’re in an unhappy, non-productive partnership, then buy the partner out.

Bottom line: At the end of the day, selling out should be your last choice, not your first! Once you’ve sold out, it’s gone, and you can’t get it back if you should later realize that you should not have sold out.

Take your time to fully learn all you can about your business, your customers, your suppliers and competitors, your employee’s strengths, your products/services, changes in your industry, new technology and new ways to sell (ie: through the internet). Check with your kids (nothing worse than selling and then have your son/daughter say “why did you do that, I wanted to run the family business?”). The list goes on, and on, and on.