One Mistake That Will Kill The Sale Of Your Business
April 12, 2025
Do you dream of building your business up and someday making a 7 or 8 figure exit? Maybe higher? There is one mistake that almost every entrepreneur makes that will kill that dream and can even cause serious issues while you are still the owner.
Not Letting Go - Doing Everything Yourself
Are you this person:
You try to wear every hat in the company.
It’s easier to do it yourself than to try to train someone who you think won’t do it as well as you.
You don’t trust anyone else to do it.
That mindset limits how much your business can actually do. You will hit that limit and the growth will stop because you are not mentally or physically able to do more and you will likely burn out. Once your business’s growth stops it’s over. If your business cannot grow, it will die.
Develop More Leaders
More importantly, if you decide someday to sell your business no one will buy it because you will no longer be there to do everything. Be the leader who develops other leaders in your company. If you want your business to continue to grow, if you want an exit someday, you must develop leaders within your business to do the work you are unwilling to let go of.
The 20% Limit
If you are doing more than 20% of all business activities yourself you will not get the result you’re looking for in a sale. This would be a great time to have a conversation with your team. Find out where their strengths lie. Believe it or not, most business owners aren’t actually as sure about that as they might think. You need to know what each person is good at doing and what they like doing. Where those two things intersect is the ideal place for them to be working.
The best way to find that out is with a Working Genius Assessment. The 6 Types of Working Genius assessment created by Patrick Lencioni, breaks work down to six fundamental activities. The results help people identify the type of work that excites them, gives them energy, and makes them thrive.
It’s a simple thing to do, it’s not expensive, and it will help you identify the 80% of your business activities you need to hand off to someone else on your team who is probably better qualified or could quickly become better qualified than you to do the work. That leaves you with more time and energy to focus on that 20% that you are better suited to do.
Need A Sign?
How will you know if it’s time to take these measures in your business? It’s always a good time to do this but if you need a sign here it is-
When Sunday comes around do you start dreading Monday morning?
Do your kids seem to be a little taller than the last time you spent time with them?
Are you having some employee turnover?
Could your business run well even if you aren’t there?
Hopefully you can answer yes to that last question. This is just one of many things you need to look at to make your business sellable. But this one thing alone will not only be a deal killer in a sale, it can kill your business before you ever get to your dream exit. And it’s a simple thing to fix. But you have to be willing to take that step to develop the leaders within your business.