Maximise the Value of Your Company

1-2-1 mentoring to get your business (and you) ready for a happy and lucrative exit

Most owners have an unhappy exit

A few years back, the Exit Planning Institute analysed the success rates of business sales. Here's what they found…

... out of every 100 businesses list for sale, only 20 owners managed to sell their business. The other 80 eventually ended up closing their business down or giving it away.

... of the those that sold, only 1 in 20 owners was happy with their net proceeds. (And. a year later, three quarters regretted selling their business, because they hadn't got themselves ready for sale!)

Take a moment to think about that ...

Only one in every one hundred owners exits with a price they're happy with!

Why do so few owners get the rewards they deserve?

You may think that you need a big business to be able to sell it easily?

It's true that the bigger the business, the more it sells for. But there’s more to a business’s value than just its size.

The way you structure and run your business determines its value and sellability. In fact, I’ve seen businesses that are worth two to three times more than bigger businesses in the same industry.

So, how do you avoid joining the 99% of owners who never capture the wealth tied up in their business?

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The average business scores 59 and sells for 3.5x their pre-tax profits. Businesses scoring 90+ sell for 7.1 times pre-tax profits. More than double!

Introducing the Value Builder System™

Data from the acquisition offers of over 80,000+ businesses shows there are eight factors that significantly increase the value of a company.Together these eight factors form the core of the Value Builder System™ - a complete and statistically proven methodology for building the value of your business.

Implementing the Value Builder System in your business helps you to:

build a durable platform for growth
identify the lowest-risk / highest-potential growth opportunities
develop recurring revenue streams
carve out a unique position in your market and
free you from the day-to-day operations

And can double your valuation multiple

The average performing company scores 59 out of 100 against the 8 value drivers, and receives an offer of 3.55 times EBITDA.

Our research shows that companies achieving a score of 80+ get offers of c6 times EBITDA (a 71% increase).

Those companies scoring 90+ typically get offers double the average company - 7.1 times EBITDA (click here to calculate your company's EBITDA).

The Value Builder System also deals you a better hand for negotiating your exit...

A Winning Poker Hand

If you want to sell soon ...

... you'll be negotiating with serious players (a bit like an amateur finding themselves in a poker game at the World Poker championship in Las Vegas).

Improving your Value Builder score turns your business into a sought-after asset, making it up to 3 times more likely you’ll receive an unsolicited offer.

When that happens, you're able to negotiate a much better bargain than if you approach someone.

Even if you're not thinking of selling soon, you may not get to choose the timing of your exit...

Divorce, Disagreement, Disease, Disaster, Death, or Disability are known as the Dreaded D's. If one of those hit, you may be forced to sell (or leave) your business against your will.

If that happens, you can almost guarantee you won't get the price you want.

Building your business to sell by implementing the Value Builder System, means you can sleep well at night, safe in the knowledge that neither you or your family will lose out should one of the Dreaded Ds strike.

So, what does the programme entail...

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Achieving a Value Builder Score of 90+ nearly triples your chances of receiving an offer for your business versus an average company

Introducing the Value Builder Mentoring Programme

The programme gets your business ready to sell a premium

Together, we'll work through a structured approach that is proven to increase the value and sellability of your company. We'll structure things so a prospective buyer will see your business's growth potential and know there is little downside risk in acquiring your business. You'll be able to walk away with a preimium and without needing to complete an earnout.

The programme gets you ready to sale

The Exit Planning Insitute found that 75% of owners regretted selling their business. That's primarily because they hadn't got themselves ready for the sale. During the programme, we'll get you ready for life-after-sale, so you can have a happy (as well as lucrative) exit from your business.

It is an investment that starts paying off almost immediately

And it will continue to pay off for as long as you own a business. The programme includes monthly 1-2-1 coaching sessions, WhatsApp support, easy-to-follow videos, done-for-you templates, quizzes and worksheets. All of the training is delivered online using our secure learning platforms. Everything you learn through the engagement will continue to apply into the future, and it's risk free for you...

It comes with a 500% guarantee!

If you qualify - and do the work - I offer you a guarantee ...

... If, at the end of the first year of the engagement, your company value has not increased by at least five times my fee, I will work with you at no additional charge until that is true.

I've worked with 70+ clients and only once could I not deliver a result a client was happy with. (Ask me about the details sometime!).

First, though, what results can you expect to see from the programme ...

The Results

Secure your biggest financial asset

When was the last time you calculated the percentage of your net worth tied up in your business? Unless you purchased or inherited it, it was probably worthless when you started it up. Now it’s probably your biggest asset, and, when the time comes to sell, you’ll want to get full value to fund your retirement or other interests.

But... 95% of owners end up unhappy with what they received for their business. Avoid thier fate by working with me to improve your Value Builder Score

Take control of your destiny

Nearly 80% of businesses listed for sale fail to find a buyer. Approximately 70% of businesses fail when the make the transition to the second generation. Not great odds of success. One of the key problems is the business's over-dependence on the owner / founder.

Together, we'll reduce your business's reliance on you, so that you have choices: hold on to it without the stress of running it on a day-to-day basis ... sell it immediately (without an earnout) if you get an outlandish offer ... or transition it easily to the next generation.

Unlock your hidden treasures

Imagine selling your home and the buyer finding a Caravaggio painting under an old mattress in the attic worth c£130m. That’s what happened to one unlucky homeowner in Toulouse, France, in 2019.

Like that homeownever, your business has hidden treasures. We’ll uncover them, then develop them to their full potential to give you competitive advantage, better margins and higher profits. And, by being paid full value for all your assets when you sell your business, you’ll avoid the sickening fate of that poor homeowner.

Banish your silent killers

Taking your blood pressure is one of the first things most doctors do before treating you for just about anything. It’s a reliable indicator of silent killers from heart disease to poor circulation. Likewise, your Value Builder Assessment gives you an early warning of your business’ silent killers.

We’ll diagnose those areas which will damage your company's long-term health if left untreated. Working together we’ll address the causes of your silent killers and build a fitter, more sustainable business.

Make more money

Higher sales don’t always convert into more cash in the bank. Your value proposition will be so clear and targeted to your niches you’ll be able to charge premium prices and achieve higher margins. You’ll have a better understanding your profit and cash levers and use that information to reduce your operating cash cycle.

Ultimately, improving your Value Builder Score will increase profits (many of my clients have more than doubled their profits within two years), allow you to grow as fast as you want and put more cash in the bank.

Have more time for yourself

For many owners, their business consumes a huge amount of their time, and they end up sacrificing their health, family, or lifestyle to protect their business. Perhaps the most valuable personal benefit of the programme is that it gives you back the one thing money can't buy - Time.

The day-to-day operations will be able to run (mostly) without you, giving you the freedom to choose how you spend your time. One owner has reduced his 70-hour workweeks to 8 to 5 Monday to Friday. and has only worked two Saturday mornings in the last 5 years. His business is worth at least 20 times more too.

Roadmap for the Company

We now know our main success criteria and have a clear structure a roadmap for the company to work towards to achieve our goals over the next number of months and years.

We’ve also benefited from getting clarity on the business challenge, setting a clearly defined business goal and understanding the steps we need to take to get to the end goal.

Martin Tierney

director & owner

An Amazing Impact

If you want help in making your business vision a reality and take your business to the next level, then I highly recommend you engage Richard to guide you through that journey.

Working with Richard to make these changes has genuinely been one of the best things we've ever done. It has had an amazing impact on our focus and performance.

James Leckey

managing director & owner

The Aurelius Value Builder Mentoring Programme

The Value Builder 121 Coaching Programme blends a statistically proven methodology with my experience scaling businesses and supporting others do the same. The programme is based on twelve inter-related and complementary tools:

Click to play

Each mentoring session is supported by videos, tutorials, workbooks and exercises to explain the concepts and help you implement them in the business

The Programme starts with a Deep Dive into your Value Builder Score and your business goals, and works through a series of monthly modules to increase value and sellability

Value Builder Score Deep DIve

Analyse your estimate of value and score on each driver, and identify which levers have the greatest impact. Review your business vision and set objectives for the year ahead.

The Scalability Finder

Identify the products and services with the potential to scale up fastest, whilst minimising its dependence on you personally to grow the business.

Customer Score

Deploy a proven survey to gather input from your customers and which is predictive of a company’s growth rates.

Growth Potential

Pinpoint, and develop a road map for your product and service lines with the highest growth potential and the lowest investment risk.

The Automatic Customer Builder

Focus on increasing both the number and quality of recurring revenue streams flowing into your business so there's less pressure on 'new' sales every month

Monopoly Control

Isolate and accentuate the attributes and qualities of your business that give you a defendable market position and pricing power.

Hub & Spoke

Identify areas where additional employee training, systems or processes are needed to allow your business to operate without you.

Switzerland Structure

Reduce your reliance on any one customer or employee using the Employee Stack Ranking and Customer Concentration Matrix tools.

Growth Predictor

Start measuring and managing the three key predictors of how fast you’ll grow and the employee challenges in achieving that growth

Valuation See-Saw

Maximise the cash flow coming from the day-to-day operations of your business. This session is anchored by The Cash Finder tool.

Your Short List Builder

Develop and refine a short list of potential buyers. This allows you to cultivate a relationship with them, puts you on their radar, encourages them to make the first move, and strengthens your negotiating position.

Your Envelope Test

Complete the Envelope Test to articulate your goals for your business and your life. How would your life be different if you sold? What are you aiming toward?

What to expect from the program

Here's some of the things we'll cover through during the program...

Move to working above and on, not in, the business

How to structure your day, week, and quarter to protect your personal time so you achieve more
Learn to delegate so your team enjoy taking ownership and accountability, freeing up your time to work on the highest value add activities
Monthly coaching sessions to keep you focused and accountable for increasing company value
How to make better decisions to keep the business moving forward more smoothly and rapidly

Define your business North Star

Use the North Star to get everyone 100% on the same page with where you’re going and how you’re going to get there
Articulate your organising thought so everyone gets why you do what you do
Define your core values to attract, recruit and keep the right people, and the organisational terrorists “deselect” themselves
Set your guiding principles so your team do the right thing even when there’s no process or policy to follow
Create a courageous vision that keeps everyone focused on the ultimate outcome

Know and manage your business’s value

Benchmark your business against 71,000+ others to see how you're performing compared to other businesses in your sector
Receive a 30-page report detailing how you're performing with improvement suggestions
Individual value driver scores to give you clarity on where you're performing well and where the biggest opportunities lie
Scenario planning to see how improving the individual scores increases future valuations
Re-valuations to measure progress and identify new actions to hit your target valuation

Set your team up for success

Develop an accountability chart that aligns the organisation to deliver the strategy
Design your organisation structure to reduce costs and improve productivity
Write role success cards that keep your team focused, motivated, and engaged
Remove ambiguity and confusion for employees, customers, and you, making everyone’s life easier and reducing frustration and tension
Why giving your employee's equity isn't a good idea, and how to create bonus schemes that fairly reward and retain key employees

Get stuff done more efficiently

Why everyone should have a number, and how you use that to inspire your team and have them hold each other to account
How to use the 90-day rock'n'roll approach to ensure you and your team are focusing on the most important development activities
How to implement a 90-minute weekly focus meeting that keeps everyone aligned and key projects on track
Develop and use a dashboard that allows you to act early to avoid major issues

How you’ll scale up with ease

Use the Trifecta of Scaling to identify your most scalable products and services
Design and build a repeatable, teachable, and valuable offering
Stop selling time and start selling products to give you more profit / hour
Identify your core competencies and leverage them to drive competitive advantage
How to create the core processes that drive more consistency, scalability and profitability

How you'll maximise your growth potential

Identify your industry's prevailing winds and use them to increase your growth rate
Move from the red ocean to your blue ocean to drive profitable growth
Define your inch-wide, mile-deep customer segmentation for rapid growth
Use the four growth-risk quadrants to develop more opportunities for your business
Determine if acquisition is a good path for your growth strategy

Establish monopoly control for better margins

Why monopoly control drives premium pricing, better margins, and higher profitability
Identify / create your uniqueness so you've no competition for your customers
Develop offers that allow you to charge premium pricing and improve your profitability
Ensure every element of your business model interlinks to protect your uniqueness
Reposition your competition and turn their key advantage into a weakness, so your sales conversion rates increase

Escape hub and spoke to focus on the big 'stuff'

Understand when you’re drifting into the owner’s trap and how to stop it happening
Move from being the Rainmaker to being the architect of your future success
Implementing systems and processes to get the business running (mostly) without you
Build a highly engaged team, so you get 21% higher profitability and 20% higher income than bottom quartile companies
How to create core processes to systematise your business so you can deliver consistent results at scale (without you over-seeing everything)

Getting sales on auto-repeat to ease the strain

Evaluate the nine recurring revenue models and decide which is best for your business
Increase your recurring revenue to smooth your cashflow and make your business more predictable and less stressful
Extend the lifetime value of your customers reducing your advertising cost of sales
Learn how to calculate your customer lifetime value to acquisition cost ratio, so you know how much to spend on marketing

Build a repeatable sales process for consistent growth

Create a trigger statement that stops your target customer dead in their tracks wanting to know more
Discover why most testimonials are worthless, and use a proven system for getting testimonials that overcome your customers' objections before they even talk to you
Discover what true sales leadership is, and how to implement it in your business
Identify and systematise your most important process to drive sales growth and profitability
Discover why most new salespeople fail and how to make sure it doesn’t happen in your business

Predict and overcome future growth challenges

Track the one measure of customer feedback that forecasts future sales
Learn about the 4.5 hidden dangers of net promoter score and how to avoid them to protect future growth
Use the Gallup 12 to measure employee engagement and take action to improve your score (and profits!)
Measure the attractiveness of your company to employees so you can act to reduce the risk of losing good people (essential when you’ve more than 20 staff)

Become like Switzerland

Understand why no-one should be indispensable, and how to avoid this
Use the employee stack ranking tool to identify and manage over-dependency on any one employee
Use the Customer Concentration Matrix to protect your profitability and reduce business risk
Analyse your supply chain and create plans to reduce contingency risk

Improve your profits and free cashflow

Understand your key financial levers so you can increase profits and (more importantly) profitability
Develop a financial dashboard that keeps you in control of your financial performance
Identify the one number you need to calculate and track so your growth plans don't bankrupt your company
How to analyse your balance sheet so you can see if you're really making money
Increase your free cashflow to reduce bank borrowing and put more cash in your bank

Prepare your business for sale

Why the Owner's Trap makes your business worthless, and how to break free
How to create a succession plan for painlessly transitioning the business to a buyer, a family member, or your management team
Understand how acquirer's value businesses, so you can achieve the value you want
Discover the 3 buyer types, and what drives their acquisition strategy
How to identify the perfect buyer for your business, and make your company irresistible to them

Get yourself ready to sell the business

How to calculate your freedom point so you know when's the right time for you to sell
The 2 issues you need to address to avoid suffering seller's regret after your exit
Discover if you're personally ready to exit, and what’s holding you back
How to use the 5 step Exit Checklist for a happy (and lucrative) exit from your business

I'm Richard McMullan. a Certified Value Builder™ and Business Mentor.

I'll help you build a significantly more valuable business. Giving you the freedom to sell when you choose to, and at the price you want.

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Why work with me?

Selling is like playing high stakes poker

Most SME business sales are facilitated by intermediaries such as business brokers or M&A professionals. These are the estate agent equivalent of the business world.

Going back to the poker game analogy, intermediaries advise you on how to make the most of the cards you bring to the table. But , like estate agents, it’s often in their best interest for you accept whatever deal is offered otherwise they don’t get their commission.

I'm not a business broker

My job's different. My job is to help you take the best possible set of cards to the table, so you've a fair chance in the game. I don't earn my money from you selling your business. I earn my money from helping you build a more valuable and indepedent business.

I help you take the best possible set of cards to the table

I've scaled businesses, bought businesses, and failed to buy businesses, so I understand what buyers want when they make an acquisition. I know what they'll pay a premium for, and I know what will put them off doing a deal with you. As a Certified Value Builder I know how to leverage that knowlege to add signficant value to your business.

I'm "sell-agnostic"

Unlike a sales intermediary, I'm not reliant on you selling to earn, which means all my advice is impartial and independent. My focus is to help you decide what's the best way, time and price for you to exit, so you avoid seller's regret.

That's even if you want to sell when we're finished

Because once you've completed the program, you may not want to sell as you'll have transformed your business into a valuable asset that can run (mostly) with you. And you'll have a wider set of choices than today. You could take weeks (even months) off to spend time with your family. You could sell and walk away. You could hand it to the next generation. You could transition it to a management team and become an active investor.

Maximise Your Company Value with the Value Builder Mentoring Programme

The programme transforms your business into one that's built to sell.

It is an investment that starts paying off almost immediately

500% Guarantee

If you qualify - and do the work - I offer you a guarantee ...

... If, at the end of the first year of the engagement, your company value has not increased by at least five times my fee, I will work with you at no additional charge until that is true.

I've worked with 70+ clients and only once could I not deliver a result a client was happy with. (Ask me about the details sometime!).

But maybe this isn't right for you?

The first step to deciding that is to book a discovery call. This isn't a sales call. I'm simply going to ask you a bunch of questions to work out if the Value Builder Coaching Programme is right for you. If I feel it isn't right, I’ll let you know politely and do my best to point you in the right direction. If we both feel it could work, we’ll book another time to talk about how the engagement works so you can decide if it's right for you.

Click the purple button below, choose a date in my diary that suits you and we'll have a 30 minute confidential, no-obligation chat.

Schedule a Discovery Call Now

Working with Richard has genuinely been one of the best things we’ve ever done – it has had an amazing impact on our focus and performance

I had been struggling for a while to translate my vision for the business into reality; to get everyday life in the business connected to delivery of our mission, vision and values. I knew where I wanted to go, but just wasn’t getting the traction I wanted. The business felt stuck and I was very frustrated that I couldn’t get things moving as well as I wanted.

Richard was recommended to me ...

by another business owner, whom he'd already helped overcome similar problems in his business.

Richard took us back to first principles to re-affirm our mission, vision and values, and to get us clear on what we wanted to achieve, and our strategy for how we were going to deliver that.

Once we had that clarity, we worked with Richard to develop our plan to implement the strategy, and put in place a revised organisational structure, and a new performance management approach to ensure we delivered what we said we would.

We now have complete clarity

We now have complete clarity on what we want to achieve, and how we will deliver that. Our strategic intent is to keep ahead of the competition through product innovation, and we have a drumbeat in the business that keeps us focused on annual delivery of new market-leading products. All of which are delivering our vision of making a massive difference to the quality of life of children with special needs.

and have strengthened our top team

One outcome of the process has been that we have strengthened our top team to ensure we have the right people in place to deliver our strategy.

And the strategy implementation process we are following (and I recommend people don’t deviate from this) has had a significant improvement on how we function as a team. Our team communicates well, we solve issues together effectively and efficiently, and our performance is improving in all areas of the business.

Would I recommend Richard?

Richard is brilliant at helping people define and implement their strategy. If you want help in making your business vision a reality, take your business to the next level, or simply get ‘unstuck’, then I highly recommend you engage Richard to guide you through that journey.

Working with Richard to make these changes in our business has genuinely been one of the best things we’ve ever done – it has had an amazing impact on our focus and performance

JAMES LECKEY // Managing Director & Owner

There’s now a marked difference on people’s focus on delivering, and the results...we’re getting better numbers too!

I had a fairly new management team, we were reasonably inexperienced in the roles, and not as productive as I wanted us to be.

The company had grown, but the management approach had stayed the same. We weren’t focused on where we were going, there was ambiguity over who was responsible for what and who was accountable. I roughly knew the direction but wanted us to have a definitive version. We also had some new senior recruits joining and I wanted to get them involved in setting the direction.

My big concern was about not everyone buying into what I wanted to do

I was concerned that I’d tried stuff before, and never made it really stick the way I wanted. So I needed to make sure that whatever I did, it wouldn’t fizzle out but would stick.

I also wanted someone who’d been in a similar position to me, who’d experienced a similar journey, and experienced what I wanted to do and had done it. Someone who’d a system for growing the business and had implemented it themselves.

Personality was also really important – I needed someone to click with, and who got me and what I was facing.

The work on attitudes and behaviours really helped

It’s so powerful for recurring, retaining and coaching people. And it’s given us a process and the confidence to deal with people whose behaviours aren’t what we wanted. We’re now able to deal with the people who deliver but don’t behave the way we expect and want for our company.

We’ve exited people because of this, and I realised that we had to do that if I wanted to build a great team and maintain morale. You have to remove the organisational terrorists who suck the happiness from people. You can’t be walking around on eggshells. It takes too much emotional energy.

Previously our meetings weren’t working

Probably the biggest benefit is the structured weekly meeting with the team. Previously, our meetings weren’t working, we’d no timelines, lots of talk, no action, people were frustrated, there were no guidelines.

Now everything is tied together, we know how this week leads to the quarterly promises, to the one-year milestone to the three-year ambition to the five-year courageous vision.

We’re getting better outcomes across the business

The quarterly promise setting process really gets us focused on where we are going. It also allows me to hear what the team think and get their buy-in, but I still influence the process and ultimately make the decision. It’s given me confidence in my decision making and to structure things. There’s much better clarity on responsibility and accountability.

There’s now a marked difference on people’s focus on delivering, and the results we’re getting. I still need to work on building individual accountability but I’m getting there.

We’re getting better numbers too – sales for the first nine months of this year are already ahead of last year’s total!

Would I recommend Richard?

Yes.

I’ve a real passion for what I’ve been through and how it’s helped me. It’s a very powerful tool to run a business by. It’s working for me and the business.

Personally, you helped me understand what was needed and how to make the changes necessary in the business to get the growth we want. I know the whole team feel the same way, and everyone got lots from working with you.

COLM GRIMES // Managing Director

If you want to really create something, these conversations are essential

Before working with Richard we had no clear vision for the company. We'd been trading for 12 years and we had an idea of where we wanted to go but no clear vision and definitely no idea of how to get there.

Our main concern about bringing in external help was price and possibly a bit of embarrassment

We were running this business for 12 years and it is embarrassing to admit that we didn't really know what direction we were driving in. That was difficult. Consultancy fees are also often automatically labelled as waste before the consultant as ever done anything!

We got a lot of clarity ...

Over the course of a few sessions we defined the company vision, ten-year goal and the strategy for how we are going to get there. The key thing was that while we started with looking at the long-term vision for the company this was eventually broken right down to a 1 year and first quarter plan which brought the vision to life. Vital!

total honesty ...

At times there was way too much of it! It's tough to hear that your ideas are often not the best fit for the company, unlikely to pay dividends or just downright awful! On reflection though, it's much better to hear that at the planning stage than finding out multiple years and cash investment into a project.

and an impartial perspective

I think this is the key to creating a successful strategy: having someone independent of the business but with a good understanding and plenty of experience to offer an objective view on the strategy and even more importantly to force us to look at the strategy from different perspectives ourselves and really shake down major concerns.

Richard brought outside perspective but with excellent business knowledge, and experience of running companies big & small that is very applicable. And he gave us clarity over where a discussion should be going. This can be very difficult when trying to take a wide-angle lens and then dig down to the details of potential issues

Would I recommend Richard?

Yes.

You get high quality questions that force more thoughtful analysis, ensuring that you start and finish with the goal in mind and brutal honesty when it can't be found within. You need to want to take your business somewhere special. If you want to tick along these conversations will be too tough.

If you want to really create something, these conversations are essential, and you’ll get the return on your investment. Honesty is cheap in the long run; compliments can be expensive

PAUL VALLELY // Managing Director & Owner

TL;DR

This programme transforms your business into one that's built to sell.

The quickest way to work out if this right for you is to book a Discovery Dall now

It isn't a sales call. I'm simply going to ask you a bunch of questions to work out if the Value Builder Coaching Programme is right for you. If I feel it isn't, I’ll let you know politely and do my best to point you in the right direction. If we both feel it could work, we’ll book another time to talk about how the engagement works so you can decide if it's right for you.

Click the "Schedule a Call Now" button below, choose a date in my diary that suits you and we'll have a 30 minute confidential, no-obligation chat.

Schedule a Discovery Call Now