Twin Cities Small Business Owners Swim Against the Trend to Sell Out Soon
The Growth Coach Finds Exit Strategies Being Postponed
Anoka County, Minnesota – As the economy remains uncertain, baby-boomer small business owners ages 46 to 64 in Anoka and Hennepin Counties are delaying the process of selling their business, despite national statistics showing otherwise.
A recent study by PriceWaterhouseCoopers reported that one out of two small to large businesses will change hands between 2006 and 2016. However, according to a survey conducted by The Growth Coach franchise system in which Alan Furst, local owner of The Growth Coach participated in, the recession has caused many small business owners in the Twin City metro area, claiming sales revenue under $5 million and less than 100 employees, to push back their selling plans and delay retirement. This is due to the negative impact degraded business performance will have on the near-term selling price of their business.
Based on survey responses, less than 10 percent of baby boomer small business owners in the metro area are planning to sell their business in the next five years. That indicates the vast majority of small business owners are planning to delay an exit strategy until beyond 2015.
“We coach dozens of baby boomer small business owners annually in the area, which helps us analyze various small business trends in the market,” said Furst, owner of The Growth Coach of Ham Lake. “This latest Business Barometer survey indicates that despite what national statistics report, the uncertain economy is forcing small business owners to re-think and delay a potential business sale until bottom-line results improve and are sustained for several years.”
The Growth Coach survey also indicated that of those baby boomer small business owners in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area thinking about selling their business:
- 25 percent of their business coaches report that the primary reason for wanting to sell their business is to cash out and collect the equity.
- 23 percent simply desire to retire.
- 28 percent agree that small business owners are setting aside at least two years to properly prepare their business for the selling process.
- 28 percent are looking to sell to third-party buyers that are not competitors
- 14 percent are looking to sell to family members.
The baby boomer generation has been one of the most entrepreneurial generations in U.S. history. During the last 30 years, more than five million businesses with annual revenues ranging from $1 million to $75 million were founded. The majority of these business owners are now 50-years-old or older.
The Growth Coach specializes in providing affordable group coaching workshops to business owners and executives utilizing its proprietary Strategic Mindset® process. In addition, they provide face-to-face coaching, Coaching Club (tele-coaching), as well as coach entire sales teams and management teams to be more effective with a strategic-focusing process. All initial coaching services come with a 100 percent money-back guarantee. The coaching process helps clients gain clarity about where they want to go, develop continuous action plans to get there, and receive on-going accountability to stay on track.
