3 Ways to Untangle Yourself from Your Business
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Debbie King was running on a treadmill so familiar to service company owners. Her company, Association Analytics, helped associations make sense of their member data, and she was wasting time on proposals that often did not get accepted. Then, when King did win a project, she was creating a custom solution for every job that required her to hire senior-level staff and personally get involved in client work. The model put a cap on her business, and when she reached 20 employees, she decided it was time to get out.
She met with an M&A professional who told her that based on her business model, Association Analytics was close to worthless.
King felt trapped. She couldn’t sell, nor could she stomach staying. That pain led her to search for a new business model. She decided to productize her custom consulting service into a product. King describes the transition, “If you think of it like the movie business, I was creating an original screenplay for each client. Now, I write one screenplay and sell tickets to the movie”.
There are a ton of lessons embedded within King’s story, including:
Niche Down: Before productizing her service, King tightened her definition of an ideal customer and got specific about who she was willing to serve. This process allowed her to build a product that would appeal to her perfect client.
Productize Your Service: Next, King transformed her custom analytics service. She took the process she used to do for clients on a one-off basis and created a dashboard that helped clients visualize their data. She hosted the application on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and charged clients a monthly fee.
Sell the Benefits of a Product Instead of a Service: Finally, King set out to sell her clients on her new product by describing the downside of a custom solution. King explained that a custom solution requires a senior consultant to be involved every time a client wants to touch it and is relatively unstable. In contrast, a product is a reliable solution offered 24/7, backed by testing and staff who know how to get the most out of it.
King expected an offer of 7 times EBITDA, so she was pleasantly surprised when she got multiple attractive offers, including one from her CFO, which she ultimately accepted. Listen, and you’ll also learn:
- How to fall back in love with your business.
- The downside of having your name on the door of the company.
- How to convince employees of the benefits of productization.
- A step-by-step process for productizing your service.
King did not want the word to get out that she was thinking of selling, so gave her M&A professional a list of just ten companies to approach. Each name on the list had a strategic reason to buy Association Analytics, which is why she could get multiple offers. We’ll help you develop your list of prospective acquirers by answering the questions in The Short List Builder tool, which you’ll complete in Module 11 of The Value Builder System™. Get started for free by getting your Value Builder Score.
Check out our article on Why Service Businesses Are Less Valuable (And What To Do About It).
About Our Guest
Debbie King successfully transformed her business, Association Analytics, from a service-based technical consulting model to a leader in the field of productized solutions. After selling her company, Debbie created Loving Your Business, her coaching company which works with successful entrepreneurs who feel trapped in their business. Using her 6 Step process clients learn to love their business, create an asset and take back their life.
She has a Master’s degree in Business and Leadership from Georgetown University, and more than twenty years of experience as an entrepreneur and a coach. Debbie is an expert on using mindset tools and cognitive psychology to revolutionize your business. Loving Your Business is her debut book. She believes the fastest way to grow your business is to love it.
To connect with Debbie visit LovingYourBusiness.com.
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