Make Your Business Sellable
March 27, 2026
#3 From “The Things I’ve learned In Business” series.
Owning and running a business can be one of the most rewarding and at the same time one of the most difficult things anyone will ever do. If you own a business you are a special person. You might not be when you start the business but you will be before long. When you start or buy your business you’re very excited and enthusiastic. Your business is running well, it’s growing, and you’re adding to your team.
But…and this is a big but- you start to notice some unexpected oddities in the way your business works. At some point the business is growing in size faster than the revenue is increasing. Something is off. You are spending way too much time putting out fires and dealing with people friction within your team. You are working way too much. When Sunday night comes around you find yourself dreading Monday morning. Your business seems to be growing and slowing at the same time. How is that possible?
It makes me think of Chinese handcuffs. You put a finger in each end. When you try to pull your fingers out the handcuffs get tighter. The more you struggle the more it tightens its grip. You have to do something counterintuitive to break free. You have to let go, relax and push instead of pull. The handcuffs will suddenly release its grip and become easier to escape. Your business is the same.
Would you like your business to run better? Would you like it to be easier? You feel stuck like in those Chinese handcuffs. There is a way to make your business easier, better, more efficient, have better cash flow, and be the scalable business you’ve always wanted.
Make It Sellable
Helping business owners make their businesses sellable is one of the tools we use in our business coaching and consulting business. Making your business sellable solves two problems:
Problem #1:
You are not ready to sell but, your business has you trapped. You like your business but it has taken over your life and is no longer giving you the satisfaction it once did. You’re working too much. Your team is not working well together and you are starting to have problems with turnover. You and your business are stuck. You don’t want to sell it but you have to do something to make it better.
Making it sellable will require you to focus on the areas that will make the business run smoother and with better cash flow. Imagine if you were buying your business today. What would you want to see? You would want to see leadership, good communication, efficiency, and profit. You don’t have to actually sell your business to make it sellable. But “sellable” is the state your business should always be in. From day one. If not from day one then from today.
There’s a lot to discuss when it comes to making a business sellable. That’s probably a topic for another article. But know that a sellable business is easier to run, has the ability to grow, is more efficient, can still be fun, and has way fewer of the problems I mentioned above. Imagine taking a month off and your business is still there running smoothly when you get back!
Problem #2:
This one is really simple. You want to sell your business but you aren’t sure how. And of course you want to get as much money for it as possible and ensure that your employees still have jobs after you leave. At this point, if you haven’t already made your business sellable it will take a lot of work to get to that point. But it is well worth the effort. Depending on the size of your business, the difference between selling the business and shutting it down and liquidating could be hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of dollars. And people’s jobs are at risk as well.
This is something I wish I had thought of decades ago. It’s such a simple concept and yet most business owners don’t think about it until it’s almost too late. It usually comes up when they decide to sell, are forced to sell because of illness or financial situations. Or worse, their family inherits the business and they don’t want it and don’t know how to get it sold.
Do them a favor.
Make it sellable now.
