Getting Acquired: From the Startup Phase to the Profitable Sell
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just take your brilliant idea, build a medium sized company and sell it for a large profit? Sounds nice and all, but how is one to achieve this? Thankfully, the process isn’t rocket science, but the persistence to the process is what will make or break your success.
Whether you’re an already established small business, an entrepreneur seeking out new ventures, or an individual with a brilliant idea that you want to bring to market, this quick 5 step process can get you started on the right path to building a successful business, and ultimately getting acquired for a profit.
How To Grow Your Small Business To Get Acquired?
The problem most small business owners have is not following a proper plan or process. They get so excited about their product or service and try to run before they have learned to walk. The process takes patience and persistence but will guide you through a logical plan to scale your company growth.
Most companies looking to acquire smaller businesses have a few common key indicators of whether a potential acquisition will be successful or not. Among them are:
How experienced and strong is your team of founders?
What is your go to market strategy and why will it succeed?
Who is your target market?
These are just a few to say the least. However, these questions will be adequately answered as you follow a basic 5 step process outlined below. Each step is a vital ingredient that must be addressed and completed, and then ultimately re-evaluated on a regular basis.
A 5 Step Process to Getting acquired
Each of the 5 steps below build upon one another and will be necessary to complete before moving on to the next step. Keep in mind that this process works for already established companies, as well as new startups and ideas. If you’re already an established small business, consider some of these steps a refining process to ensure you’re preparing with the right mindset to get your company acquired.
Step 1 – Product & Market Research
Find a problem and build a solution (product or service) to fix it. Before you can scale a business to get acquired by a larger company, there needs to be a significant market to sell to. A market that is too narrow may work to stay local and maintain a small business locally but isn’t enough for a larger corporation to even consider acquiring your brand.
Proper market research includes identifying a common problem in a specific market and researching how common that problem is among the respective market. A proper market evaluation will answer common market questions such as:
Step 2 – Build Your Team
Another common mistake that entrepreneurs make is thinking that they can do everything on their own. It takes a conscious effort to put others in charge of certain aspects and trust their ability to complete the tasks. This is the only way your company will be able to scale growth and truly find and build a profitable company/product.
Your team should be a group of individuals that are experts in their occupations and know what to do to achieve success. A strong founder’s team will include experts of the following areas:
With the right team in place, your product will have the knowledge and expertise to create a mastermind group with your founding partners. At this point, your product is most likely already a narrowed idea, but this step will focus on refining the idea and making needed adjustments as seen fit by each founding partner.
Step 4 – Raise Funding
With a talented team in place, a detailed product & market research analysis, a strong product description and ultimately a solid and scalable “Go-To-Market” strategy, you’re ready to convince investors that your idea is a winner.
Your best option here is using your current network to work your way into a targeted venture capital company. In most cases, you will have multiple meetings with venture capital companies before they ever decide to give your company funding. They serve as a powerful resource and guide to help you tweak your company, product or service as needed so that they feel confident in funding your company growth.
Step 5 – Scale & Sell!
Once funding is obtained, it’s time to hit the ground running (if you haven’t already) and take your product or service to market. With regular board meetings between you, your founders and investors, company plans will be made, and market acquisition will launch.
You now have the capital needed to find the right talent and hire great first employees to help launch your company to a scalable startup.
When following these 5 steps, you will have paved the way for the market to turn their heads to your company and get noticed by already established market players. As your company grows at an exponentially fast rate, next step is deciding whether you want to sell, or keep growing your company to a global market.
Throughout his career as a successful serial entrepreneur, Mladen Djankovic has set up, operated, and sold a number of businesses. A skilled corporate strategist and marketer, he leads with a vision and expertise in business performance, having driven notable enterprise growth in retail, luxury, and general consumer sectors. For more on Mr. Djankovic, visit this page.
Whether you’re an already established small business, an entrepreneur seeking out new ventures, or an individual with a brilliant idea that you want to bring to market, this quick 5 step process can get you started on the right path to building a successful business, and ultimately getting acquired for a profit.
How To Grow Your Small Business To Get Acquired?
The problem most small business owners have is not following a proper plan or process. They get so excited about their product or service and try to run before they have learned to walk. The process takes patience and persistence but will guide you through a logical plan to scale your company growth.
Most companies looking to acquire smaller businesses have a few common key indicators of whether a potential acquisition will be successful or not. Among them are:
- Is there a large enough market for your product or service?
How experienced and strong is your team of founders?
What is your go to market strategy and why will it succeed?
Who is your target market?
These are just a few to say the least. However, these questions will be adequately answered as you follow a basic 5 step process outlined below. Each step is a vital ingredient that must be addressed and completed, and then ultimately re-evaluated on a regular basis.
A 5 Step Process to Getting acquired
Each of the 5 steps below build upon one another and will be necessary to complete before moving on to the next step. Keep in mind that this process works for already established companies, as well as new startups and ideas. If you’re already an established small business, consider some of these steps a refining process to ensure you’re preparing with the right mindset to get your company acquired.
Step 1 – Product & Market Research
Find a problem and build a solution (product or service) to fix it. Before you can scale a business to get acquired by a larger company, there needs to be a significant market to sell to. A market that is too narrow may work to stay local and maintain a small business locally but isn’t enough for a larger corporation to even consider acquiring your brand.
Proper market research includes identifying a common problem in a specific market and researching how common that problem is among the respective market. A proper market evaluation will answer common market questions such as:
- Who are your customers and where can you find them?
- What are their current interests? Current pain points?
- What ages, gender, geographic location, etc. describes your ideal customer?
- How big is the approximate market of your ideal clientele?
- Who are the current competitors that parallel your product idea?
- How does your product differ from the competition, and why will that attract new business?
Step 2 – Build Your Team
Another common mistake that entrepreneurs make is thinking that they can do everything on their own. It takes a conscious effort to put others in charge of certain aspects and trust their ability to complete the tasks. This is the only way your company will be able to scale growth and truly find and build a profitable company/product.
Your team should be a group of individuals that are experts in their occupations and know what to do to achieve success. A strong founder’s team will include experts of the following areas:
- Chief Executive Officer – Expert decision maker, in most cases the main founder of the company.
- Chief Financial Officer – Data driven individual with proven track record of interpreting financial data, forecasting budgets and planning for business growth.
- Chief Operations Officer – Often times COO’s are former accounting professionals that have experience analyzing company operations and improving upon the efficiency of company processes and procedures.
- Chief Technology Officer – If your company is a tech startup, you will need an experienced technology expert who knows the ins and outs of popular programing languages, leadership skills, team management skills and project management skills.
- Chief Legal Officer – You can’t put a price on a thorough attorney who specializes in your company’s market. A simple mistake that causes a legal issue can break your company from ever passing the “startup” phase.
- Market Specialist / General Founder Employee – This employee may have multiple different titles, and frankly can be whatever you decide to call them. Their role, however, is to take on important tasks and projects, and find a way to fix them if they don’t fall under the responsibility of any of the above-named founding employees. They are great problem solvers, entrepreneurs, self-learners, and creative thinkers.
With the right team in place, your product will have the knowledge and expertise to create a mastermind group with your founding partners. At this point, your product is most likely already a narrowed idea, but this step will focus on refining the idea and making needed adjustments as seen fit by each founding partner.
Step 4 – Raise Funding
With a talented team in place, a detailed product & market research analysis, a strong product description and ultimately a solid and scalable “Go-To-Market” strategy, you’re ready to convince investors that your idea is a winner.
Your best option here is using your current network to work your way into a targeted venture capital company. In most cases, you will have multiple meetings with venture capital companies before they ever decide to give your company funding. They serve as a powerful resource and guide to help you tweak your company, product or service as needed so that they feel confident in funding your company growth.
Step 5 – Scale & Sell!
Once funding is obtained, it’s time to hit the ground running (if you haven’t already) and take your product or service to market. With regular board meetings between you, your founders and investors, company plans will be made, and market acquisition will launch.
You now have the capital needed to find the right talent and hire great first employees to help launch your company to a scalable startup.
When following these 5 steps, you will have paved the way for the market to turn their heads to your company and get noticed by already established market players. As your company grows at an exponentially fast rate, next step is deciding whether you want to sell, or keep growing your company to a global market.
Throughout his career as a successful serial entrepreneur, Mladen Djankovic has set up, operated, and sold a number of businesses. A skilled corporate strategist and marketer, he leads with a vision and expertise in business performance, having driven notable enterprise growth in retail, luxury, and general consumer sectors. For more on Mr. Djankovic, visit this page.
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