The title paraphrases a Wall Street Journal article from August 27, 2018 titled, “The Scan That Saved My Life.” The sub-title includes, “After years of exercise and healthy eating, a reporter’s blocked artery came as a shock.”
A health industry reporter, who exercised, ate healthy (a lot of salmon, oatmeal, and similar but with a passion for cheese), and paid attention to his health found out he had a almost completely blocked carotid artery. He had an ultrasound scan after a few “minor” symptoms of something being off. This resonated with me because a good friend had a stroke this past summer and found he had a 99% blocked artery.
Business Scan
Scans, tests, exams, and similar are common and necessary when health related. But when it comes to businesses, most owners don’t want anything close to a diagnostic exam of their company. Probably why the WSJ wrote only 10% of businesses are likely to sell for maximum value and Kiplinger’s wrote, “Most businesses will sell at a discount.”
Why won’t owners want an assessment of their business? Three reasons come to mind, for small, mid-sized, and lower middle market firms:
- Ego– the attitude of nobody knows my business better than me, it’s special, it’s unique, the standard rules, i.e. proven good business practices, don’t apply to my firm. I remember a client who, every time a strategy or tactic was discussed started out his reply with, “Yes, but….” and went on about how his firm was different.
- Time– yes, it takes time. Whomever is doing the assessment will interview the owner, management, key employees, customers, walk around observing, etc. It will take time away from the day-to-day, but it does give a fresh perspective. Here’s an example. A client had a very thorough assessment done and one of the observations was the shop employees have a quasi-union going on, meaning they set their own rules. Interesting.
- Money– money always plays a part in this, especially when the owner doesn’t think others will “get” his or her business.
Benefits
You can assess the financial systems, operations, management, marketing, and other areas. Here’s what you should get from it.
- Confidence your numbers are true and correct or an understanding of what will make them better. Accurate financial statements will help with operations, the bank, and any eventual buyers.
- Uncovering cultural issues or advantages. The quasi-union mentioned above is one example and on the other end of the spectrum is a client who says they have no problem finding employees because of their reputation. In fact, their vendors refer people to them because it’s a better place to work than others in their industry.
- Better operations are often the result of this. It could be work flow, sales, supply chain, marketing, sales, or something else.
- Growth will occur when bottlenecks and inefficiencies are corrected.
Overall, this means an owner will know more about their competitive advantage and how to exploit it.
Conclusion
The previous sentence is no doubt the most important item in this article. When you have a competitive advantage and use it your company has a much better chance of thriving. To be an owner, and especially a founder, means you are super confident. It shouldn’t mean you know it all or should refuse advice from experts. The owners who value outside advice, are in peer groups, and always strive for continuing education have a much greater chance of success whether it’s a few employees or hundreds.
