Build, Accelerate and Harvest
the Value of Your Company
Built to Sell
Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You
Do you want your business to grow and prosper without sacrificing the freedom to live the lifestyle you want? Do you want to build a company that you can cash out and sell one day so you can retire comfortably or go after your next big idea?
In Built to Sell, we discover that these ideas are not mutually exclusive. The idea that you have to work your fingers to the bone for years to build a sellable company is flawed. In fact, the opposite is true. If you want to sell your business for the maximum amount of money, it needs to be designed to thrive without you so the next owner can continue to grow and profit from your hard work when you’re gone.
Inside Built to Sell, you’ll discover how to create a fast-growing, profitable, scalable business that will give you the flexibility and freedom you desire. After all, that’s why you became an entrepreneur in the first place. And you’ll find out how to leverage that automation and profitability into a big cash buyout when you’re ready to move on to your next endeavor.
John does a masterful job of illuminating the qualities that business buyers look for in a company, and he does it in a thoroughly enjoyable and engaging manner.
There is no tooth fairy for selling a business. It takes planning and a real understanding of what works. I bet you’ll find yourself (like me) recommending this book to your friends who want to sell their businesses one day but don’t understand what that’s going to take.
The Automatic Customer
Creating a Subscription Business in Any Industry
The lifeblood of your business is repeat customers. But customers can be fickle, markets shift and competitors are ruthless. So how do you ensure a steady flow of repeat business? The secret – no matter what industry you’re in – is finding and keeping automatic customers.
These days virtually anything you need can be purchased through a subscription, with more convenience than ever before. Far beyond Spotify, Netflix, and New York Times subscriptions, you can sign up for weekly or monthly supplies of everything from groceries (AmazonFresh) to cosmetics (Birchbox) and razor blades (Dollar Shave Club).
According to John Warrillow, this emerging subscription economy offers huge opportunities to companies that know how to turn customers into subscribers. Automatic customers are the key to increasing cash flow, igniting growth, and boosting the value of your company. Consider WhatsApp, the Internet-based messaging service that was purchased by Facebook for $19 billion. While other services bombarded users with invasive ads in order to fund a free messaging platform, WhatsApp offered a refreshingly private service on a subscription platform, charging just $1 per year. Their business model enabled the kind of service that customers wanted and ensured automatic customers for years to come.
This book shows you how to master the psychology of selling subscriptions and reduce churn and also provides a road map for the essential statistics you need to measure the health of your subscription business.
Whether your business is exploding or stuck in a rut, there’s something you can learn from John Warrillow in this book. Read, apply, and watch your bank deposits grow every month.
By page 40, The Automatic Customer will have you fundamentally reexamining your entire business. This is a brilliantly made case for why subscription revenue should be a part of every company. Highly recommended!
It’s rare that a book is able to have such a universal, immediate, and profound impact on the strategy of almost every business okay, every business. Warrillow’s case for adding a recurring revenue stream to your business model is convincing and he shows you nine ways to do it, as well as how to navigate the potential pitfalls.
The Art of Selling Your Business
Winning Strategies & Secret Hacks for Exiting on Top
Every owner must part with their business one day. Many will close their doors, realizing little for their life’s work—while a select few will become fabulously wealthy.
The Art of Selling Your Business: Winning Strategies & Secret Hacks for Exiting on Top is the last in a trilogy of books by author John Warrillow on building value. The first, Built to Sell, encouraged small business owners to begin thinking about their business as more than just a job. The Automatic Customer tagged recurring revenue as the core element in a valuable company and provided a blueprint for transforming almost any business into one with an ongoing annuity stream.
Warrillow completes the set with The Art of Selling Your Business. This essential guide to monetizing a business is based on interviews the author conducted on his podcast, Built to Sell Radio, with hundreds of successfully cashed-out founders.
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About the Author
John Warrillow is the founder of The Value Builder System™, where the community of Certified Value Builders has helped more than 55,000 businesses improve their value.
John is the author of the bestselling book, Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You, which was recognized by both Fortune and Inc magazine as one of the best business books of 2011. Built to Sell has been translated into 12 languages. John’s next book, The Automatic Customer: Creating a Subscription Business in Any Industry, was released by Random House in February 2015 and has since been translated into eight languages.
John is also the host of Built to Sell Radio, where he has interviewed hundreds of founders about their exit. Forbes ranked John’s podcast as one of the ten best podcasts for business owners.
Before founding The Value Builder System™, John started and exited four companies.