Introducing The Business Exit Blueprint

From: Richard McMullan

To:       Ambitious business owners

Re:       The challenge of exiting happily, wealthy, and regret-free

Dear Ambitious Business Owner,

This message is probably one of the longest introducing a book you’ll ever read. It’s also highly likely to be the most important, too.

To be clear, at the end I’m going to ask you to invest £20 on a book and some bonuses to help you - eventually - exit your business happy, wealth and regret-free.

You may be tempted to skim over what I’ve written and jump ahead.

I strongly urge you not to do this.

Instead, I urge you to read every word and carefully consider the message.

Not only will it mean your eventual decision is fully and properly informed, but what I share here is educational, beneficial, and valuable of itself, even if you decide not to buy the book.

Nevertheless, if I know one thing… people are impatient.

If you want to find out what's in the book, click here

Or, if you’ve made up your mind before you get to the end, just click the big red button to begin the process of getting your hands on my book (and access to the bonus materials).

Still with me?

Good, let's start with what this book isn't..

What's different about this book

I’ve read countless books and listened to hundreds of podcasts on exit strategy and how to sell your business.

Nearly all focus on the mechanics of the sale process, covering what happens from the point you decide to sell through to completing the sale.

But all make two flawed assumptions. They implicitly assume:

• The reader is ready to sell their business
• The reader’s business is ready for sale

Over many years and conversations with hundreds of owners, I’ve seldom found that to be true.

Few owners are aware of all the possible exit options and how to choose the right path for them.

Few know what prospective buyers seek or value (which is understandable as selling is a one-and-done event for most).

That lack of awareness and knowledge leads to an unrealistic view of their business’s saleability and an over-inflated view of its market value.

Ultimately that leads to disappointment (at best) and bitter regret (for many).

Which is why “The Business Exit Blueprint” doesn’t bother with the mechanics of the sale. It starts much earlier on the journey, guiding you through how to get yourself and your business ready for sale, so you can sell on your terms and at the time of your choosing.

It guides you through the questions every seller should answer before they decide to its time to exit:

• What do you need for a happy, lucrative, and regret-free exit?
• Which exit option is going to be the “best-fit” for you?
• How do those “best-fit buyers” perceive your business today?
• What changes are required to make your business valuable and attractive to those “best-fit buyers”?
• How, exactly, will you do that?

You may be thinking that sounds like a lot of work.

You're right. It is, but it's worth it. 

Here's why...

What's in it for you?

Working through the process and implementing what you discover in the book will increase your company’s market value and its buyer appeal. Even better, you will avoid becoming one of the seldom talked about, but dreadful, statistics of business ownership. A statistic worse than the failure rate of start-ups …

Take a moment, and imagine just how that feels...

Can you imagine their simmering frustration?

All those years wasted.

The sweat, the sacrifices, the sleepless nights … all for nothing.

Can you feel it?

That sinking feeling, like a lead weight in your stomach, especially if you've already painted a future awash in financial success and personal triumph.

A future of financial freedom for you and your family gone.

If you want to avoid their fate and exit happy, wealthy, and regret-free, I strongly urge you to invest just £20 in “The Business Exit Blueprint” and the incredible free gifts.

Doing so, and following the advice and systems in the book, will help you build a sustainable and scalable business, which can run (mostly) without you, is less hassle, more fun, and more profitable to own, and which can be sold on-command whenever you choose.

I'm so confident the book delivers, that it comes with my my personal, unconditional, cast-iron, no-wiggle-room, works-or-it's-free, life-time guarantee.

But...

How do you know this works?

Over the last 8 years, I’ve helped more than 130 owners improve the value and market appeal of their businesses.

Some have sold for life-changing amounts. Some have kept their businesses and added new ones to their portfolio. Some have simply created the space to enjoy life more.

Regardless of whether they exited or not, all have seen significant increase in their company’s value.

One client saw their company’s value grow from c£5m to £44m inside three years (it’s now worth over £100m). Another has seen a 10-fold value increase in the last seven years. One client exited after three years for a double-digit profit multiple plus a substantial share in the acquirer.

What Others Are Already Saying About The Business Exit Blueprint

What’s the real problem?

From my research, those appalling exit success statistics come down to two factors:

• Owners are unaware of all the exit options and post exit roles open to them
• Owners are unfamiliar with what truly adds value and marketability to a business

Your Exit Options

Exiting your business is a big deal. It’s a life-changing event, and I’d put it up there with life's most significant stressors: divorce, loss of loved ones, health issues, and house-moves.

Understanding the options, and their implications for you, your family, and your business, is essential for creating Your Exit Strategy.

I’ve seen client’s excitement levels flare, their angst disappear, and stress levels plummet when taking them through their options. The thought of exit turns from a sense of loss and foreboding to a sense of excitement and new opportunities.

“The Business Exit Blueprint” takes you through all the options available to you, and helps you evaluate their pros and cons. But knowing how and why you’ll exit isn’t enough, your business has to be ready to sell too.

Value & Sellability

If you’re like most owners, you’ll naturally focus on sales growth, product quality, customer satisfaction, on cost reduction, and keeping things running smoothly.

While these are crucial for a robust business, they don't necessarily lead to a sale-ready business able to fetch a life-changing sum.

They often believe selling their business is like the Field of Dreams: "I've built it, they will come."

They assume a profitable business is sufficient.

But loss-making businesses can sell for substantial amounts, while highly profitable ones may struggle to attract buyers and, when they do, often sell for only one- or two-years' worth of profits.

Unless you've been involved in buying and selling businesses, it's challenging to understand what creates value and saleability.

So, who can you turn to for guidance?

Your typical business book and consultant focuses on issues like lead generation, sales strategies, business systemisation, financial management, leadership, and more. But they lack insights into long-term value creation and the saleability of your business. Their advice may only cover a fraction of what's required, and sometimes, it may even harm your business's value.

While business brokers and corporate finance advisors understand what makes a business valuable and sellable, they can't show you how to make yours valuable and sellable as they've never done it themselves. Also, their primary focus is on selling your business for their profit, not on helping you increase its value.

Most accountants are not well-versed in what creates value or saleability, and even if they were, it’s unlikely they’ll encourage you to explore them because selling your business means losing a client (as few buyers retain the seller's accountants).

Serial acquirers and private equity firms won’t share this knowledge because they profit from buying companies at a low price, enhancing their value and saleability, and then flipping them for a higher price.

You’ll discover everything you need to know in the book. You’ll discover what buyers look for, what they’ll pay for, and what scares them way. You’ll learn how to implement "The Business Exit Blueprint" in your business – my proven system for increasing value by growing a sustainable, scalable, and cash-generative business.

Why take action now?

Right now, whether you want to exit soon or in 20 years’ time, you stand at a crossroads in your business. You might not realise this yet. Or maybe you do know it and simply choose to disregard, ignore, and even deny it.

Your choice, to be sure.

And you are free to make any choice you like... but you are NOT (and never) free to escape the consequences of what you choose.

The world is a very different place from how it was even just a year ago.

Post-pandemic economic and political turmoil and uncertainty, and even war in Eastern Europe, have conspired to plunge us into the most precarious and unstable business environment I can remember.

Bottom line: the economic difficulties we have thundering towards us right now threaten to make the grinding global financial crash of 2007 an insignificant tremor in the economic bedrock.

And all the economic indicators are it’s only going to get worse. The bump from reckless government borrowing and covid support is beginning to ease and consumer and business confidence and spending is dropping.

Whichever way you look at it, there’s a rising level of difficulty surrounding you and your business, manifesting itself in myriad different ways.

That difficulty is going to have a profound impact on company exits. Those appalling statistics are going to get worse. Fewer companies will get to market, fewer will be sold, and even fewer will get the price the owner wants or needs.

The only thing you can do is to insulate and inoculate yourself against it by growing a sustainable, scalable, valuable business.

And, if you want to exit soon, you need to start TODAY.

It takes between three and eight years to complete the sale of your business.

At least two of those years are focused on growing your business’s value and preparing it for sale.

Perhaps you’re thinking "I can leave this for a few months or years"? Well, it’s a valid option, but you may be making the biggest mistake of your entrepreneurial life.

Here's why...

If you're like most owners, your business is your most substantial asset, probably representing more than 70% of your net worth.

Now, imagine if one of life's Dreaded Ds — disability, disease, death, or divorce — suddenly strikes you or a close family member, and you need to sell your business. What then?

If you can't easily unlock the value in your business, if you can't swiftly convert it into cash, have you genuinely secured wealth for yourself and your family?

If selling it isn't a straightforward option, you’re in a similar situation to the landed gentry of old – asset-rich but cash-poor. History shows how that played out for the aristocrats and grand estates.

To create true wealth, to safeguard your family’s future, to have freedom, control, and choices, you should start planning for your exit and enhancing the value and saleability of your business today.

If you want any semblance of financial or other security, you will never, ever find a better investment than powerful, effective, and predictable systems for growing the value and marketability of your business.

And this is why you’d do well to invest just £20 in “The Business Exit Blueprint” and the incredible free bonuses.

But perhaps you’re wondering why you should believe and trust me?

Why should you believe me?

Well, I could share my CV but we'd both be bored. So, let me try and break it down for you in a more meaningful way…

Many revolutions of the earth ago, I was deep into the world of strategy consulting, and got a real handle on figuring out what drives company value and making smart decisions to maximise it. I even studied stuff like corporate finance, acquisition strategy, and strategic decision making at Ashridge Management College.

During my strategy consulting days, amongst other things, I was advising big companies like Orange on how to get a return on their £4bn investment in a 3G licence, helping Nescafe trim their product line and reposition their products to sell like, well, Starbucks coffee! And helping NatWest revive their banks in Germany and Greece and optimise their credit card pricing strategy.

During that time, I spent a couple of years as Head of Marketing & Strategy at NatWest's International Trade and Banking division, with turnover in the hundreds of millions of pounds. In just two years, we managed to crank up the profits from £124 million to £170 million, which added a sweet £440 million to the company's overall worth.

Then, in 2001, I took the reins as the Managing Director of a furniture company. During the early noughties we grew at an incredible 52% year on year, from £1.5m to £15m. Even after the 2008/09 financial crash hit us with a 33% sales decline, we managed to rebuild to £20 million by 2014. What's more, our employees were happier than the proverbial pig, with satisfaction levels through the roof.

As well as being down in the trenches, I’ve got the non-exec badges too. I've got a fancy distinction in Company Directorship, I'm a Chartered Director, and I used to be a Fellow of the Institute of Directors. I've even chaired three private companies, and I'm the Honorary Treasurer of Belfast Chamber of Trade – so I've got the helicopter view too.

You might tell me that all sounds great, but your business and your sector are different. Let me tell you this, having bought six businesses, worked in over 30 different industries with more than 130 owners, I know the Exit Strategy and Value Optimisation principles I share work in every industry.

You've probably come across those textbook knowledge consultants spouting theory and the latest fad? Rest assured I'm not one of those. I've been in the trenches and in your shoes (during which I've made my fair share of mistakes and celebrated plenty of successes). My whole career has been about rolling up my sleeves and actually making businesses better, one of which could be yours.

So, when you hear me talk about the Exit Rubik’s Cube, Best-Fit Exit Strategy, Self-Driving Teams, Tribes of Evangelical Ambassadors, Rock Solid Foundations, and the strategies I am asking you to plug into your business, you can trust they're not just theories – they're battle-tested in real businesses, including my own ventures (of which I’ve two on a path to sale right now).

What's this book all about?

The book is split into two parts.

The first part is all about creating your Exit Strategy. In it, you’ll:

• Solve Your Exit Rubik’s Cube. You’ll uncover the six elements that define every owner’s exit, and determine exactly what a happy, wealthy, and regret-free exit looks like for you
• Evaluate Your Exit Options. You’ll learn about the nine exit options, and how to evaluate the pros and cons of each to determine the “best-fit buyer” who’ll deliver your perfect exit
• Evaluate Your Business. You’ll discover how businesses are valued, and learn how to assess your business through the eyes of your ideal buyer, so you can identify exactly what’s required to get them knocking at your door excited at the prospect of buying your business

The second part of the book starts by explaining the six reasons every owner should be building for exit, even if they never intend to leave. It then goes on to describe, in practical, actionable detail my Building For Exit Flywheel - my proven, proprietary process for building a valuable and sellable business.

You can dip into the different parts to help you resolve problems and remove the issues that will scare away your ideal buyer. Or, if you’re not looking to exit soon, you can implement it from start to finish to build a sustainable, scalable, and cash-generative business.

There are three elements to Book:

• Solid Foundations – how to create a robust and resilient platform for growth by removing the key risks that damage value, scalability, and sustainability 
• Self-Driving Teams – how to build a team that takes your business effortlessly, efficiently, and safely to your destination, with only a light touch from you
• Evangelical Ambassadors – how to build a tribe of fans who love what you do, do what you ask them to do, pay a premium for the privilege, sing your praises, and refer others

Together, those elements create Owner Autonomy, Sustainable and Scalable Growth, and Predictable Free Cashflow – the three hallmarks of a valuable and marketable business.

(In case you’re wondering, what I share in the book is effective for all kinds of businesses, whether you’re selling to other businesses or to the end consumer, and all types of ownership structures).

Fair Warning

Let’s get clear on a few things before you think about delving into “The Business Exit Blueprint”...

• Everything I share with you works
• Everything I share with you is a learnable and implementable
• As with all such skills, if you apply and practice them, you will get better
• Some people naturally get better results because of social, cultural, economic, and personal factors and variables I can’t foresee, predict, or control. But all other things being equal, the more deeply you embed and practice what I teach, the better you’ll get and the better the results you’ll enjoy
• The only way these skills won’t work for you is if you don’t get good at them
• The only reason you won’t get good at them is if you don’t start out bad at them and steadily improve through practice, reviewing and refining them
• If you avoid implementing what I teach in the real world because you worried about getting it wrong, fear appearing foolish, or care more about what others think about you instead of your own success, then you will never improve, and your life and business will stay exactly the same as they are now.

Bottom line, if you commit to refusing to accept anything less than an exceptional business, if you’re determined and dedicated, willing to be different, slaughter sacred cows, and stick your head above the parapet in pursuit of what you know to be right, and are determined to build a scalable, sustainable, and sellable business AND eventually exit happy, wealthy and regret-free, then “The Business Exit Blueprint” is the book for you.

My personal, unconditional, cast-iron, no-wiggle-room, double your money back guarantee

If at any time between now and the day you die you believe for any reason (or no reason at all) what I’m sharing with you in "The Business Exit Blueprint" isn't worth at least a thousand times what you paid to get it in your hands…

Just let me know and I’ll ensure you get a full and courteous refund of DOUBLE your money back (and you can keep the Incredible Free Gifts and everything else you may have downloaded with my compliments).

Can’t say fairer than that, can I?

“No Richard, you can’t” is the only sane answer to that question.

So ... what are you waiting for?

PS: Quite frankly, this is the last word, chapter, and verse on how to craft your perfect exit strategy and grow the value and market appeal of your business.

Are you ready to transform your business, so you can join the Elite 0.3% who exit happy, wealthy, and regret-free, when you decide the time is right for you?

Yes?

Time to click the big red button below and invest just £20 in getting your copy of the "The Business Exit Blueprint".

Remember... it is a 100% risk-free purchase. If at any time, you don't think the book is worth one thousand times what you paid for it, email me to richard@aurelius-advisory.com for a full refund. 

PPS: Email me if you've any questions or want to get my hands-on help with your business  richard@aurelius-advisory.com