These are the options you have if for some reason you can’t sell your small business, and we have five of them!
1. Optimize your business beyond your time
You want to optimize it outside of your own time so that you can still step back from it but create some passive income. During this process you could:
- Hire a clinical director- get somebody from within your business to get a percentage of profits for running it.
- You should at least check in monthly and have some KPI’s – these are going to be a dashboard of things that to you really recognize the success of the business. For most people this is the number of sessions if you have a counseling practice, it’s going to be the income coming in. Make sure that you have a good idea of how many phone calls are coming in as well.
2. Talk to your best-achieving employees about new responsibilities
Look at whether your high achieving employees may want to run more of your business. This could be a percentage of profits or it could be opening extra locations that go beyond just your time. You want to build this business so that it runs itself so that eventually maybe if there is a buyer, you’re able to position yourself for an exit.
3. Have a land contract type agreement
This is where over time, someone gets less of the money that they would typically be paid – so in a salary or in a percentage of what they receive, and that goes towards purchasing the business. You want to have this all written out in a contract form, it has to be a legal document that you draw up and not just the handshake agreement. Make sure that you then have a very clear timeline of a 3-5 year period that they get a certain percentage of the business. You also want to make sure that when they hit that 51% of the business that they can’t just then vote you out and not pay you the rest. You want to make sure that it’s very clear, so work with an attorney to make sure that this is done correctly.
4. Build something else and put little effort into the business
Look at just putting as little effort as possible into your business and start building something else. A lot of the clinicians that I work with have massive skills in a particular area. It could be trauma, couples work or maybe working with kids, and so they’ve been starting podcasts and e-courses on the side. Oftentimes that side gig can massively outpace your practice.
5. Maximize options for future sale
Right now there’s probably going to be someone in the future that wants to buy your business. This could be someone locally, in another town or someone who just wants to expand. There are all these options and this video is really going to help you continue to look at those options. Just because that door closed right now it doesn’t mean it’s going to stay closed.
Watch the other videos in this series:
We have tons of resources over at practice of here. If you’re looking for some extra help around selling a practice, scaling it or going after big ideas like podcasting or a course, I’d love for you to apply for some consulting here, we’ll jump on a call to see if you’re a good fit with me or with my team.
Joseph R. Sanok, MA, LLP, LPC, NCC
Joe Sanok is an ambitious results expert. He is a private practice business consultant and counselor that helps small businesses and counselors in private practice to increase revenue and have more fun! He helps owners with website design, vision, growth, and using their time to create income through being a private practice consultant. Joe was frustrated with his lack of business and marketing skills when he left graduate school. He loved helping people through counseling but felt that often people couldn’t find him. Over the past few years, he has grown his skills, income, and ability to lead others, while still maintaining an active private practice in Traverse City, MI. To link to Joe’s Google+
