onsistently outperform the S&P 500 because the market makes money on businesses that can be successful under a variety of circumstances.

• Systematize operations. Document procedures and hold staff to them. Multiplying businesses are not rocket science. Again, success is a numbers game. You probably know how many calls you have to make to make a sale. Take that further by studying your successful and unsuccessful transactions, an

Want a real ego boost? Then make yourself unnecessary. Your business will be more valuable if you can get it to the point that it grows in your absence. Like parenting, where imparting the tools your kids need to be happy, productive members of society is an accomplishment, getting your business to run on its own warrants bragging rights. The more dispensable you are to your business, the more valuable it’ll be when you are ready to exit.

Some businesses cannot survive without their owner. Highly specialized or emotional occupations like most brain surgery practices or entertainers have a one-generation life span. They’re so dependent on the owner, they’re not worth much on a relative basis when the owner retires. The more replicable your business, the greater your opportunity is to make yourself unnecessary.

Making yourself unnecessary means systematizing operations. Sure, creativity adds value and impacts profitability, but a potential buyer for your business is going to consider how easily he or she can fill your shoes before they formulate an offer. Replicability boils down to a numbers game. The more you can get in front of the customer and employ a systematized process, the more sales you’re going to achieve.

Here are four ideas for creating business replicability.

• Open new locations. When you add locations, you create proof that your current success is not dependent on you or your first site. The more locations you have, the less time you’ll have to spend at each one, forcing you to develop systems and people.

• Franchise or license. The enormous success of franchising and licensing proves people are willing to pay significant sums for proven business models and brands. Franchisors as a group consistently outperform the S&P 500 because the market makes money on businesses that can be successful under a variety of circumstances.

• Systematize operations. Document procedures and hold staff to them. Multiplying businesses are not rocket science. Again, success is a numbers game. You probably know how many calls you have to make to make a sale. Take that further by studying your successful and unsuccessful transactions, an

t.

Some businesses cannot survive without their owner. Highly specialized or emotional occupations like most brain surgery practices or entertainers have a one-generation life span. They’re so dependent on the owner, they’re not worth much on a relative basis when the owner retires. The more replicable your business, the greater your opportunity is to make yourself unnecessary.

Making yourself unnecessary means systematizing operations. Sure, creativity adds value and impacts profitability, but a potential buyer for your business is going to consider how easily he or she can fill your shoes before they formulate an offer. Replicability boils down to a numbers game. The more you can get in front of the customer and employ a systematized process, the more sales you’re going to achieve.

Here are four ideas for creating business replicability.

• Open new locations. When you add locations, you create proof that your current success is not dependent on you or your first site. The more locations you have, the less time you’ll have to spend at each one, forcing you to develop systems and people.

• Franchise or license. The enormous success of franchising and licensing proves people are willing to pay significant sums for proven business models and brands. Franchisors as a group consistently outperform the S&P 500 because the market makes money on businesses that can be successful under a variety of circumstances.

• Systematize operations. Document procedures and hold staff to them. Multiplying businesses are not rocket science. Again, success is a numbers game. You probably know how many calls you have to make to make a sale. Take that further by studying your successful and unsuccessful transactions, an

operations. Sure, creativity adds value and impacts profitability, but a potential buyer for your business is going to consider how easily he or she can fill your shoes before they formulate an offer. Replicability boils down to a numbers game. The more you can get in front of the customer and employ a systematized process, the more sales you’re going to achieve.

Here are four ideas for creating business replicability.

• Open new locations. When you add locations, you create proof that your current success is not dependent on you or your first site. The more locations you have, the less time you’ll have to spend at each one, forcing you to develop systems and people.

• Franchise or license. The enormous success of franchising and licensing proves people are willing to pay significant sums for proven business models and brands. Franchisors as a group consistently outperform the S&P 500 because the market makes money on businesses that can be successful under a variety of circumstances.

• Systematize operations. Document procedures and hold staff to them. Multiplying businesses are not rocket science. Again, success is a numbers game. You probably know how many calls you have to make to make a sale. Take that further by studying your successful and unsuccessful transactions, an

new locations. When you add locations, you create proof that your current success is not dependent on you or your first site. The more locations you have, the less time you’ll have to spend at each one, forcing you to develop systems and people.

• Franchise or license. The enormous success of franchising and licensing proves people are willing to pay significant sums for proven business models and brands. Franchisors as a group consistently outperform the S&P 500 because the market makes money on businesses that can be successful under a variety of circumstances.

• Systematize operations. Document procedures and hold staff to them. Multiplying businesses are not rocket science. Again, success is a numbers game. You probably know how many calls you have to make to make a sale. Take that further by studying your successful and unsuccessful transactions, an

onsistently outperform the S&P 500 because the market makes money on businesses that can be successful under a variety of circumstances.

• Systematize operations. Document procedures and hold staff to them. Multiplying businesses are not rocket science. Again, success is a numbers game. You probably know how many calls you have to make to make a sale. Take that further by studying your successful and unsuccessful transactions, and then documenting a roadmap. Develop a story and keep repeating it. Soon you’ll hear your staff telling the story too.

• Incent your staff. If you are afraid of your staff running away with the store if you empower them, you either have the wrong staff or you’re not giving the right incentives. Using franchising as a model, people whose pocketbooks are impacted by the bottom line are more apt to act in favor of the business. Use stock and/or bonuses that are tied to bottom-line performance.

If you want to create a thriving, valuable business, save your indispensability for personal relationships. In business, “be fruitful and multiply.”