true value
something very meaningful to a prospective buyer – your system for making money. It is the value you have added to make your business worth something. Otherwise, anyone can buy inventory and equipment and start the same business him or herself. Why would they buy it from you?
“But, but … how about the customer list?” Does that not have value? Of course it does – assuming you have a system to keep it up to date.
But, in any case, customers cannot be owned. If you have trained them that you, as the owner, are personally the key to their happiness, and no one else is as good as you, the True Value of your business is tenuous.
If your business is good enough to be attractive to someone else, you have done more than simply unlocking the door every day. You have created value, by doing something, which people are willing to pay for. Systemizing that something, is where you – or any employee – become immaterial to the value of the business. It gives the business value, in and of itself.
Being “Finished”. Perhaps one of the most valuable images you can have comes from Tom Watson, CEO of IBM, where
he suggested that to get an idea of what your objective is, you only need to imagine what your business would look like when it is “finished”. When all the parts are in place, it runs as smoothly as any business can run, you are not “doing” or even “managing”, but owning, a “finished” business. Your task is to simply work every day toward that image.
Decorating Plywood. Imagine you own an electric train set. You want to set up a realistic scene to frame the train set. This
involves all manner of little railroad crossings, tiny buildings, miniature people and pets, perhaps a mountain or two, cows in the little field, some trestles, cars and trucks, with smoke coming from the steam engine. Add realistic looking grass and trees, and you have your own little piece of the world captured on plywood, in your basement.
There are thousands of steps to take after the railroad tracks are fixed in place. But you labor on, knowing in your mind what the finished product will be. You know what it will look like when it is “finished”, but right now, it is little bags and boxes of pieces and parts, and a catalog of where you can acquire more pieces and parts.
The Goal of Independence. Your business is exactly like that. You have all the parts or know where you can get them. Now, it is
a matter of putting it together in such a manner that it does not consume your life, but provides the means for you to have a life, independent of the business.
And, just like your business, you know realistically you are never really “finished” because the Model Railroader magazine will arrive every month with new little doohickeys you can add to your layout. Nevertheless, standing here today, you have a mental picture of what the finished layout will look like, when you get to the point where you are satisfied. This is the mental exercise to which you are being invited.
48 scrapbook business
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