Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You

If you wanted to sell you business this year, would you have any buyers? That's the powerful question that informs this book. Much like Patrick Lencioni's books, this book is told through a parable - the tale of an advertising agency owner who decides to reinvent his business with a mentor so he can sell it. I wasn't sure if the story approach would work for me initially but it did a wonderful job. In the second section of the book, the author shares more about his experience building and selling companies. This "build to sell" approach is also valuable even if you do not want to sell because it gets you out of "the trenches" of doing the business. For the best results, pair this book with "The Automatic Customer."

Like many modern business books, the business lessons that John Warrillow teaches are embedded into a parable which makes for quick reading. The story is about a harried entrepreneur, Alex Stapleton, who owns a marketing agency. As the story begins, he is getting fed up with bad clients, underperforming employees and poor financials. He's ready to sell.

The rest of the book is about his taking on a mentor, Ted, who helps him to understand how business buyers evaluate companies. Ted helps Alex create value in the company and, in the process, create a much more enjoyable and profitable business. The story culminates with Alex going through the process of selling the company including the hurdles he faces and overcomes along the way. show more

Throughout the story, the author includes 17 tips to follow for creating value. Some of the tips are no-brainers and some are gems that come only from experience (e.g., hire two sales people instead of one). After the parable is an eight step process for creating a business that can thrive without the owner. The lessons from experience are worth the price of the book alone. show less

An overly simplistic parable book. Nevertheless has some insights, especially for people new to the mechanics of selling a company. Also good ideas about getting the owner out of the day to day.

I learned a lot from this book and liked the storytelling aspect.