TRANSFERABLE VALUE: ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT REALITY?

You educate your clients about transferable business value. Two options: (1) You talk about business value and ways to connect it with personal wealth, and/or (2) you do business value growth engagements. Either way, you should understand the process. How do you redesign a business to maximize value? What levers should you pull?

If you're a Management Consultant, CPA Business Advisor, CFP Exit Planner, M&A Pro or Fractional CFO working with business-owning clients, this article is for you.

Our goal as advisors to bring sophistication to the discussion both about transferable business value, and about taking control of transferable value by redesigning the business so that it can deliver your client’s goals. 

Private Equity does it every day, why shouldn't you? It's not magic, it's process. This is perhaps the last blue ocean advisory opportunity with middle market businesses: helping clients control, grow and monetize the value of their largest asset, their privately-held business. Our members have PE's playbook, and are helping their clients win. --George Sandmann, Growth-Drive CEO

The key to building a thriving advisory business is making sure your clients win. They win when the business connects with their personal wealth. Whether they use the business as a private piggy bank or build it to sell, it’s reasonable for a client to extract the value of their life’s work from the business. This is why many of you have earned important credentials for making this connection: CPA, CFP, CIMA, CBEC, CEPA, CVA, and more.

Thinking back over a decade meeting with thousands of pros like you about how to better connect with clients, there are some valuable lessons.

1. It always starts with cash. Creating predictable cash flow creates a business that is easier to run, gives your client freedom, and maximizes value at current EBITDA
2. There are two ways to grow: the wrong way, and by executing a plan
3. Creating certainty (as opposed to hope) about monetizable equity value is not magic, it's process - and winning advisors have methods, tools and support that deliver

The playbook for growing profits and transferable value stems from working with hundreds of business advisors on thousands of cases. Growth-Drive members are using the playbook and building thriving advisory businesses: if you're a Growth-Driver you have the knowledge, tools and sophisticated support needed for helping your clients to win.

This graphic captures the whole picture. Growth is complicated... which is why a proven methodology is so important.

We'd be happy to email you the Pyramid, just tell us where you want it sent 

Bottom line: senior pros are adding depth and sophistication to client conversations about transferable value. Savvy pros are differentiating their services with the knowledge, tools and support they need.

Here are three recommended resources:

1. Growth-Drive uses this playbook in the launch course*
2. Select advisors are joining Business Advisor Peer Groups, either powerful inter-disciplinary groups or service-specific speciality groups (e.g. Exit Planning Group)
3. Check out this free online advisor's forum

*The launch course includes the Growth-Drive Playbook of valuable resources, scripts and templates for successfully starting the growth conversation, writing proposals, delivering a business strength and value report, and more. Think "everything for adding +2 new services".

Bottom line: our mission is to deliver the method, tools and sophisticated support that senior advisors need. Subscribe and stay tuned.

We'd love to know what you think: please comment below or email george@growth-drive.com.