How irrelevant are you?
A couple of weeks ago I said I’d write a series of articles on what you need to do if you’d like to sell your agency someday. This is my second installment.
#1 - Pick your niche/specialization sells (March 24, 2021)
#2 - Be absolutely irrelevant (today)
Here’s the deal. When someone buys your agency, it’s because you don’t want to be there any more. You want to hang with the grandkids, start your non-profit or finally get to Greece. But you’re selling because you want out.
The buyers know that you aren’t sticking around for long and even if you do come into the office, your head and heart aren’t going to be all in. If you want to get the maximum price for your agency, your day-to-day role has to be working on the business (which the new owner will do), not working in the business.
- If you’re the main point of contact for the agency’s largest clients— that’s a problem.
- If you’re the only one who can land new business — that’s a problem.
- If you’re the de facto creative director — that’s a problem.
- If you’re the only one who can develop strategy — that’s a problem.
You need to build a team of seasoned agency pros that can run every aspect of the business without your input. As you can imagine — that takes a lot of time, patience, and mentorship. I read once that a business owner who is truly out of the day-to-day should be able to go on vacation for a month and not check email or check-in at the office a single time while they’re gone.
What do you think? Could you do that today? Can you envision being able to do it in a year? If the answer is no and yet you do want to sell your agency eventually — then it’s time to put together a plan that can make you irrelevant to the business.
Think of it as a series of small “replace yourself” projects. Think about the strongest player on your team. What would be natural for them to take off your plate? Identify what they’d need to learn to be ready to do that and start chipping away at it until you’re ready to take the training wheels off and see how they do.
Once that is going well, do the same thing again. And again. Slowly train your replacements before you’re ready to leave.
This is going to take dedicated focus and effort. And you aren’t going to get it right 100% of the time. If your timeline is 10 years or less, start now and make it a priority.
Drew McLellan, with Agency Management Institute, produces a weekly newsletter with updates, tips, and market information of value to marketing agencies, owners, and employees. If you'd like to receive the weekly newsletter, follow this link to subscribe.