New Year’s Resolutions for Business Owners

The New Year is when we often take the time to plan for the year ahead. If you are thinking of transitioning your business sometime in the next 1-5 years, the New Year is also a great time to start making some changes that could result in your company selling at a higher price. While there are no guarantees, the following three resolutions have shown themselves to have positive results with our past clients:

Put Your Energy Into the Business

Many people as they are considering retirement have a tendency to start a little early and let the business coast. One thing about coasting – it is always downhill. Putting in the effort your company needs to grow should produce higher revenues which in turn can lead to a higher sales price. If you know your purchasing can use a little tweaking to reduce the COGS percentage, do it now. The more profitable your company, the more valuable it will appear to potential acquirers.

There is one caveat: Do not make long-term commitments at this stage. The new owner might have a different vision for the company and needs the freedom to grow the business to fit their goals.

Run Everything Through the Books

Of course we are all IRS Tax Law abiding citizens, but occasionally a cash job might accidentally slip one’s mind when it comes time to complete the company’s tax return. It is vital in the run up to a sale that all revenue is categorized accurately. The improvement in profitability will be reflected in the sales price. SBA lenders and Buyers work exclusively off of tax returns. Any reputable business broker will therefore use only those figures in marketing your business. An added benefit is that this is an easy way to help increase your revenues and lower your COGS percentage.

Train Someone Else to Do at Least Part of Your Job

One of the hardest parts of selling a business is for the owner to truly accept that someone else can run their company. A way to help ease that transition is to start building your staff to take on more responsibility. This is a case of training them well and managing your people. This might seem it contradicts Resolution #1, but it doesn’t. It doesn’t mean spending less time in the business, rather it is putting the owner in a more administrative and less hands-on position.

The businesses that are the most difficult to sell are where the buyers perceive the seller to be “superman” or “superwoman”. Think of it this way: If you do everything from concept design to pricing to supervising employees, are working 80+ hours a week, and personally cultivate all the vendor and client relationships, what buyer could replace you? The new owner will probably not have your exact same skill set. If you can reduce your direct area of responsibility to one or two, the odds of a successful transition increase dramatically.


Adopting some (or all) of these resolutions could potentially increase the value of your business when it is time to sell.

Have a safe, happy, and profitable New Year.