Control your business, don’t let it control you

We get introduced to a lot of business owners at Xentum who have lost sight of the reason why. Why they started the business, why they wake up at 6am and get back through the door late at night and perhaps why they don’t spend as much time with their young children as they’d like.

It’s so easy to get lost in the day to day, whether it be managing an inconsistent cash flow between major projects, perhaps pitching to a potential major new customer or dealing with ‘you lot’, as our MD Adam Carolan would say (tongue in cheek of course!).

Gradually the purpose of the business starts to drift away from the owner’s personal goals and the reasons why are lost in the fog. It’s at this point that we’d argue that the business is starting to control the owner, not the other way around.

We believe everything starts and ends with a business owner’s personal goals and that the business that they’ve created is ultimately just a tool to be able to fulfill those goals. And that’s why our first meeting as part of our WealthPlan process is to understand what fundamentally drives a business owner. You’d be surprised how many times the owner’s personal goals completely differ with their current business plan.

A lot of companies we come across are looking to build towards an eventual sale, whether it be internally to the management team or externally to a consolidator or perhaps private equity taking a stake. There’s one constant though that they all need to figure out before they go ahead with a sale.

What’s my number?

We all know how important data is in this age of technological advancement. At Xentum we use it to give client’s their number. The number that means they can live the life they want to lead post sale.

Our way of achieving this:

• Using the data of the business owner’s current financial position.
• Quantifying the business owner’s personal goals.
• Using advanced modelling software to identify the value they need from their shares.

It’s very powerful and starts to drive the business plan at each board meeting going forward. We’ve got a lot of clients that are working towards their number and the two things they all have in common are:

• They all have sight of their reason why.
• They’re all in control of their business, the business isn’t in control of them.

If you’re interested in quantifying your number and aligning your business goals with your personal goals, then feel free to get in touch by sending me an email at theteam@xentum.co.uk. We’re a wealth management company that aren’t focused on investments but on helping business owners in mostly the creative, digital and tech industries to take control of their personal finances, using data, empathy and a forward thinking service.