What else did you build ?

You built the business but what else did you create ?

When I sold a second business, I didn’t get remotely emotional about the brand, the revenue or the office we had. For the month running up to the sale I spent most of my time thinking about the people I would be leaving behind once I left.

I’ve since realised that quite a lot of what we were doing was setting up the next generation of the leaders I’d worked with, some of which have gone on to grow far more that I could have helped them to. When I stop and think about that, it makes me extremely proud.

Most business leaders I meet think their legacy is the deal, but its not. I’ve asked a number of exited founders what they’re most proud of and a large proportion tell me it seeing where its people have got to.

Ask yourself, are you really building a team and creating an environment where people grow into roles that take your business forward ? If the answer is ‘No’ then its unlikely that someone else will want to invest in it either.

When I ask a room full of business owners to think of a great leader, they don’t think of someone who built a great business. They think of someone who built them and trusted them to keep on growing. That is the kind of leadership team an acquirer gets interested in buying.

As someone who’s been there a couple of times, your real legacy isn’t the money you’ve got in the bank, it’s the next generation of leaders you create, develop and leave behind.