Delayed Exit? How to Build your Go-to-Market for a Marathon
You were planning for a brisk sprint to exit. Now, due to market conditions beyond your control, it’s instead become an endurance marathon.
Exit
Traveling Collective 54 While on a Budget – A Time Budget
From the start, I want to acknowledge that this blog may not be for everyone in the Collective 54 family.
For some, Collective 54 is as much a part of each day as that second cup of coffee or the trip through the Business section of the Wall Street Journal. You wear your 30% annual EBITDA growth like a finely tailored suit. You have a strong and deep team behind you that lets you focus fully on scaling and your eventual successful exit.
The Top Ten Reasons It’s Impossible to Time the Exit of Your Firm
Welcome, members of Collective 54. Today, we’re delving into a topic that touches the core of entrepreneurial ventures and the dreams of every founder – the exit strategy. Exiting, or selling your firm, is often seen as the culmination of a founder’s hard work and vision. However, the idea of timing this exit perfectly is more myth than reality. Here are the top ten reasons why it’s virtually impossible to time the exit of your firm precisely:
The Unspoken Truths Behind Selling Your Professional Services Firm
As founders of boutique professional services firms navigate the intricate journey of building, scaling, and perhaps eventually selling their businesses, the narrative surrounding the reasons for these exits often skims over the surface of deeper, unvoiced motivations. At Collective 54, we’ve witnessed firsthand 40 successful exits and nearly 200 attempts that fell short. This unique vantage point has revealed the underlying drivers that founders themselves may not openly acknowledge. Let’s delve into these unspoken truths and understand the real reasons behind the decision to sell.
The Value (and Challenge) of Forecasting Accuracy
In any business an accurate forecast is one of the most valuable things one can achieve. An accurate forecast is the basis of effective resources planning and reduction of risk in the business. As we think about recruiting, hiring, and resources without an accurate forecast, our plans are merely guesses. Many of us are also thinking about maximizing our exit valuation. The ability to forecast accurately reduces business risk significantly thereby increases business value.
From Visionary to Victory: Ensuring a Triumphant Exit to PE
As Founder & CEO of your firm, you are ready for the next chapter. But the change and the effort feel daunting. Those fears are standing between new beginnings and dreams you’ve cherished for years. Personal evolution meets business transformation is finally here.
The road ahead is both thrilling and full of challenges requiring careful navigation. The exit demands balancing personal dreams and sharp business strategy.
Why Sabbaticals Could Be the Key to Unlocking Your Firm’s Scalability and Value
Since college, I have been a hustle-and-grind professional. It only got worse when I became an entrepreneur and ran my own show. I’d never taken more than a week-long vacation. Then recently, in September 2024, I took a huge leap and embarked on a once-in-a-lifetime journey: hiking the Camino de Santiago, a medieval pilgrimage route spanning 500 miles from the Pyrenees in France to northwest Spain. My wife and I hiked it in 26 days, carrying everything we needed on our backs. While it started as a personal adventure, it became a transformative experience for me and unexpectedly for my company.
The 80/20 Rule on Preparing for an Exit for a Professional Services Firm: A Founder’s View
Exiting a professional services firm will be a founder’s most consequential event. It will be the peak of their entrepreneurial journey. As a founder, I recently sold my firm to a growth-oriented private equity firm. Our sale process took 10 weeks, from the Letter of Intent to closing day. My M&A advisors have told me that our process was among the smoothest and most efficient they have ever seen. One key reason for this is the preparation completed before the process. There is a lot to prepare with limited time, so it is important for you to focus on the biggest bang for your buck. The 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle, states that 80% of outcomes come from 20% of causes for any given event. For your exit event, focus on the 20% of prep that yields 80% of the success. Here is what I focused on:
Stop Selling and Grow Your Business
When I joined my father’s marketing research company in 1997 as his first employee, I had no idea that letting go of sales would ultimately 10x our revenue. My initial role was building our new research service, while my father handled all sales. Since our new service was an upsell to existing clients, the sales process was relatively straightforward at first.
7 Reasons Why Founder-Led Sales Are Failing Your Firm’s Growth (and How to Break Free)
In professional services, founder-led sales have been the lifeblood of growth for years. Many firms have thrived in their early days by relying on personal networks, referrals, and word-of-mouth.
However, as the landscape shifts, so does this model’s effectiveness. The way buyers make purchasing decisions has fundamentally changed, and the founder-driven, network-dependent approach is no longer enough to fuel sustainable growth. If you want to grow, scale, and ultimately exit your firm, the time to rethink your approach is now.