What if you could adopt a fresh perspective that transforms your business operations and accelerates your journey toward your dream exit? Ever considered what it means to view your business through a buyer’s eye? Join Mike in this episode as he unpacks the game-changing concept of constantly observing your business from an outsider’s viewpoint. Mike talks about the significance of extinguishing your business “dumpster fires” and discusses 5 key pointers to maintain this new outlook. Embrace this mindset and watch as you become a more efficient entrepreneur running a smoother operation.
Having a buyer’s eye for his own business, Mike talks about the consequential decisions it led him to and how it can do the same for you. So tune in, it’s time for a paradigm shift in your business operations, all geared toward that Dream Exit!
Check out the video version of this episode below:
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Episode transcript below:
0:00:00 – Mike Malatesta
On today’s solo Free Thinking Friday episode. I am talking about something that you probably have never thought about and I never thought about it until I sat down to record this and that is have you ever seen a sloppy firehouse? Enjoy the episode. This episode is sponsored by the Dream Exit. The Dream Exit is a private bespoke program for successful entrepreneurs with annual revenue between $5 million and $100 million who realize that they have one chance to get their Dream Exit right and that the odds of realizing that dream by themselves, all alone or at the last minute are stacked against them. In less than 90 days, we teach you how to design, build and execute a customized Dream Exit playbook that gets your business ready for sale at its maximum value and gets you ready to maximize your meaning and purpose in your post-exit life, even if today you are not ready to sell. You see, dream Exits just don’t happen. They are the result of early, professional and proven planning. So if you’re an entrepreneur with annual sales between $5 and $100 million and you want to learn how to 10x to 100x your chances of achieving the Dream Exit you deserve, go to dreamexitplaybookcom today. Hey, everybody, welcome back to this. How it Happens solo episode. This free Thinking Friday solo episode. Thank you so much for joining me.
As you know, on Mondays I do a longer form conversation podcast. We dig into how that success happened for them and, more than that, why it matters, why it matters to you, why it matters to the world, and so those are great conversations, usually around an hour or so, and on Fridays I do something shorter. On Free Thinking Friday. I basically explore something that’s been on my mind, something I’ve heard about, something I’ve been introduced to, something that has been forwarded to me or something I’ve read. You get the point.
Today this is a little weird one. I was thinking about firehouses and I’ve been doing this thinking for a really long time. So I’ve always had this firehouse mentality in my mind in my businesses, but I never really thought about expressing it in a podcast and then tying it back to business. But here it goes. So have you ever seen a sloppy firehouse? It’s like really hard to find a sloppy firehouse.
I like to look at firehouses. Maybe you don’t, I don’t know, but I go every time I see a firehouse whether it’s a volunteer firehouse or whether it’s city, you know, run by city firefighters that are sleeping there and eating there, and whatever it always looks so well put together. When they’re there, everything’s in their place, the doors are open, the boots are right by the door, where they’re supposed to be. It’s all about being prepared to exit as soon as they get a call or an alarm or whatever the right terminology is for that. And what’s interesting to me, like I said, is like, well, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a volunteer fire department or whether it’s staffed by professionals, paid professionals, people whose career it is to be firefighters. They are all neat, so neat that the newer ones they always put glass overhead doors in them, it seems like. So they can kind of show off how neat they are, how clean the trucks are, how positioned everything is. And it got me thinking like they’re really, they have like a buyer’s eye what I call a buyer’s eye for their fire station or a firehouse, meaning they need to project this image to the taxpayers that they are, one, getting great value for their money, and two, they are prepared. They’ve thought about everything they need to think about in order to do the job when the job needs to be done. And so I was like okay, so let me take that same thing and look at businesses and, as you may know, I have a program that is called the dream exit and I help entrepreneurs achieve the dream exit that they have earned and deserve.
And that has me looking at a lot of different businesses and this whole notion of the buyer’s eye from a taxpayer standpoint got me thinking about the buyer’s eye from a buyer’s standpoint and, let’s face it, most businesses run from an internal focus standpoint, not an external focus standpoint, and that that makes sense. I mean that’s important to have an internal focus on your goals and your growth and your customers. That’s that’s important. But I believe that it’s equally and maybe more important to always have a buyer’s eye or a buyer’s lens on your business too, because ultimately, what you are building inside of your business is not just a great business, not just something that your customers and clients value, not just a place that your employees and team members love and rally around. You’re building value, building value in your business for the owners, and a lot of times, what I see is a lot of non value added or non value thinking inside of the business, and this can also apply to to life or workspaces or whatever, but I’m going to focus it on business now, and I think it’s so important to operate a business with a buyer’s eye because my belief is that when you do that, two things happen. One, you always run a better business. You always run a better business because what you focus on always improves. Just think about your life what you focus on always improves. Same thing in business. Second, if you’re running a business and you’re operating it with a buyer’s eye, you are going to be a better operator, a better entrepreneur, a better business owner, a better manager. So for those two reasons, and a lot more, I think it’s just very important to run your business with a buyer’s lens, and I think that’s crucial to eventually getting the value built up in the business so that you will have the dream exit that you deserve and that you’ve earned. So here are five quick things that you may not always be thinking about, but I think you should consider thinking about to get you into the buyer’s lens or the buyer’s eye mindset when you’re running the business.
Number one Extinguish all your dumpster fires. So inside your business and a little fire connection there. But let’s face it, you need to build the best team possible, the best team that you can possibly build today, and then continue that every day and A players do not wanna come into businesses where they have to put out dumpster fires. No one wants to put out your dumpster fires, so extinguish your dumpster fires, whether that’s people that are dumpster fires, processes, culture that are dumpster fires, whatever it is, identify it, eliminate it. Number two employee tenure. Team member tenure matters you. The more that people have been in the job with accountability and with expectations, not without any, with those two things, the more valuable your company is. Number three always be thinking about how you can make your buyers life easy, even if you’re not thinking about selling. Having this buyer’s lens has you focused on the business from an external standpoint or viewpoint and you’re figuring out how the next buyer, next owner, next generation, whatever, how you can make their life easier. And when you make the buyer’s life easier, you make your company more valuable.
Number four get your financial house in order. I don’t know how many companies I see where the financials are a mess, and not just from an accounting standpoint. They’re a mess from just BS, expenses running through the business, just all kinds of nonsense that you have to explain to somebody, right, because they’re like well, that’s nonsense. You’re like no, it’s not nonsense, because get rid of all that, get rid of all the BS. Just run your business as a solid business. And again, when you wanna be having buyers have interest to you and value your business at its maximum point, you don’t want them asking any questions about BS, expenses and other things running through your business.
And number five take out the trash. It’s similar to dumpster fires, but when I say take out the trash, I mean look at everything in your business, whether it’s a again, whether it’s a process, whether it’s a condition, whether it’s does it look like a firehouse, whatever it is. Make sure that everything inside your business that does not need to be there is put out in the trash or recycled somewhere else. So those are five things that give you an initial look or perspective for a buyer’s eyes in your business and a way for you to achieve your dream exit. And if you wanna know more about the Dream Exit Program, email me thedreamexit at gmailcom. And this program will do two things for you. One, it will prepare and position your business for sale eventual sale at its maximum value. That’s super important. And number two, more importantly, it will prepare you as the business owner or the entrepreneur for a life of maximum purpose and value. After you sell your business, that’s harder.
So thanks for listening to me today. I hope I brought some value to you. I do appreciate you being here. Please consider subscribing or following the podcast. Give me some feedback, let me know what you think, and maximize your greatness the greatness that’s inside of you today and really focus on making your future, your property, something that you own, like it’s a physical thing, something that you own and that you are very proud to own. Until next time.
Hey everybody, thanks for listening to this show and before you go, I just have three requests for you. One if you like what I’m doing, please consider subscribing or following the podcast on whatever podcast platform you prefer. If you’re really into it. Leave me a review, write something nice about me, give me five stars or whatever you feel is most appropriate. Number two I’ve got a book.
It’s called Owner Shift how Getting Selfish Got Me Unstuck. It’s an Amazon bestseller and I’d love for you to read it or listen to it on Audible or wherever else Barnes, noble, amazon you can get it everywhere If you’re looking for inspiration that will help you unlock your greatness and potential, order or download it today so that you can have your very own copy and if you get it, please let me know what you think. Number three my newsletter. I do a newsletter every Thursday and I talk about things that are interesting to me and or I give more information about the podcast and the podcast guests that I’ve had and the experiences that I’ve had with them. You can sign up for the podcast today at my website, which is my name, mikemalatesta.com. You do that right now. Put in your email address and you’ll get the very next issue. The newsletter is short, thoughtful and designed to inspire, activate and maximize the greatness in you.
