Exit Strategy and ISO Standards

Every exit strategist we know emphasizes the same tactics, including running the business as a system.
Interested in a good exit from your company? Every exit strategist we know has told us that the sale price of a company can be increased by having a solid, repeatable system running it.
An Example
Let’s say you’ve invented the world’s perfect bacon blue-cheese burger. You decide to produce those beauties in greater quantity and make good money. You hire a couple of workers, and create some form of restaurant service. But because you are still the only one who can make that burger perfectly, your sales are limited to how many you can crank out personally in a day. So what's next?
What’s Next, Is a Quality Management System
The McDonald’s people, to use a much bigger example, broke the burger business down into parts and focused on doing hamburgers and fries faster, more efficiently, and more repeatably, than anyone else. Michael E. Gerber makes much of this example in his book, The E Myth Revisited. Gerber explains that Ray Kroc’s genius back in the day, was to develop a system where everything is done the best possible way, then teach it to everyone else. Gerber calls it the Franchise Prototype; and in a brilliant statement on page 92, writes “The system runs the business. The people run the system.” The system allows employees toproduce consistent work that meets the requirements of the customer.
ISO 9001:2015 describes important principles about each part, and the system that helps all it come together. ISO standards define quality as “the degree of conformance to requirements” – that is, the customer’s. The way to consistent quality is to set up a system that, from one end to the other, supports quality.
Multiplication
Instead of making every single bacon blue-cheese burger yourself, you develop the formula and teach it to the employees, as part of a complete system, multiplying yourself with good help.
That’s why we love ISO 9001 and the other ISO standards. They set the requirements, which you interpret according to your business, as a system that can lead to multiplication.
Want Some?
One entrepreneur we know installed an ISO 9001 quality management system, and when he sold his business, started buying expensive sports cars. Others started having so much fun they just kept growing the business and took more cash home and benefit their employees. We call that “Have more fun – Make more money.” While we can’t guarantee anyone’s results, we’ve seen a pattern over 35 years.
Are you ready for business growth, and maybe be ready to retire sooner? Contact us for a free quote for your business, and see how you can get started with some of our free resources!