If you’ve been in business for a while, you know how complicated your books can get. This is especially true if you’ve accumulated many clients and built up an expense sheet longer than your grocery list.

Keeping up with the expenses and revenue can be one of the most tedious tasks we face in the backend of our businesses. When you decided to start your own business, you probably weren’t dreaming of all that time you’d spend making sure each purchase is tracked, recorded, and in line with the revenue coming in. But you also get that this habit is necessary so that you can be sure you’re doing everything legally and avoiding any future issues with the IRS.

When business owners come to me ready to sell their business, but they haven’t taken the necessary steps to ensure a clean record, I have to tell them that their business isn’t as valuable as they may think. And that really sucks.

With a background as a broker, life coach, and fourth generation entrepreneur, it's safe to say that I have learned a few things over the years about how to grow a business as an asset that might later be sold. 

I like to say that I'm a coach by trade and an entrepreneur by heart. I have owns and operated several businesses over the course of my career -- some were successful, some not. 

Selling your business may seem like a far off possibility, but one thing is for sure: for a business to sell to a good buyer, it needs to have meticulous systems from the get go. 

I have compiled a list of do's and don'ts that ever successful business should follow, especially if there is even the tiniest possibility of a change in ownership sometime in the future. 

If you’ve ever climbed Mt. Everest, you probably had a kick*** sherpa.

Okay, so most of us haven’t climbed Mt. Everest, but maybe you’ve heard of a Sherpa?

A Sherpa is an expert mountaineer known for helping lead treks up Mt. Everest. They are highly skilled, well aware of the terrain, and highly regarded for their experience and know-how.  As a business broker, I am like a deal sherpa. I bring a team of experts to help our clients get to the top of their “mountain”: buying or selling a business. 

You do what? 

That is usually the question I am met with when I tell people that I am a business broker. 

So, let's break it down and figure out WTF a business broker actually does? 

We sat down at the conference table across from two first time business buyers. They were eager to hear what we had to say and excited about the business opportunity that was before them. 

But they weren't sure how to structure the purchase, how to form a business entity, or how to create a partnership that would survive the inevitable ups and downs of business cycles. 

And so, we gave them a few very powerful pointers that I am going to also share with you in today's post.