Start to exit: How to maximize the value in your start-up

by Adrian Burden

ABOUT Learn how to build the value in your start-up day by day, step by step, so you are ready to take a lead in talking to investors about raising funds or selling your business. This practical guide is written from the perspective of a tech entrepreneur who made his own exit for millions after 2½ years – and is now building his next set of ventures. You will learn how to put in place the policies, systems, strategies, processes and tools that investors expect to see. Then you will gain a series of insights into how to negotiate the best price for you and your business. COMMENTS ‘This book is an ideal manual for ambitions entrepreneurs … it is a comprehensive, easy-to-use reference for aspiring tycoons,’ Luke Johnson, chairman, Centre for Entrepreneurs, the home of StartUp Britain and chairman, Risk Capital Partners LLP ‘Read this book before you start! Sound principles and strong advice on building a successful and exit-able business. It's like having an angel/mentor/advisor in the palm of your hand from the get-go,’ Emma Jones, founder of Enterprise Nation ‘The exit strategy is the most significance aspect in starting a business. This is a core book to read before starting a business and making those early-stage decisions,’ Dr David Bozward, senior lecturer in entrepreneurship at Worcester Business School, University of Worcester FURTHER DETAILS Starting a new business is brave but not particularly difficult. Scaling up a small business so that it sells great products or services, employs more people, and becomes profitable is tricky. Then positioning the business for an attractive trade sale or stock market listing is even more difficult, as there are so many balls to keep in the air as you do so. This book is all about helping the entrepreneur, founder and small business management team to efficiently systemise their business processes from the outset. The aim is to avoid bureaucracy, facilitate rapid growth, secure investment when it is needed, and make the all-important exit. Getting these things right early on allows new staff to hit the ground running, speeds up due diligence and, most importantly, allows business owners and their teams to focus more on strategy and less on fire fighting. The book looks at the kind of business are you pursuing and how it might affect your life, helps you formulate top level goals ahead of a business plan and provides guidance on choosing your company and product/service names with a view to the future. The narrative then looks at creating a first-cut business plan before understanding and optimising a company’s share structure with some consideration for investor psychology. Guidance is given on formalising a company and structuring it internally around function with a view to scaling in the future. Consideration is given to administering records and agreements so that staff can access information on a need-to-know basis. There is also a look at managing the company’s day-to-day finances, developing a brand, as well as using press releases and social media to generate helpful publicity. These ideas are all presented whilst understanding the challenges of managing staff, avoiding bureaucracy and making the most of your board of directors or advisors. Issues around cyber security, intellectual property, complex sales projects and analysing key data are also discussed in the context of mitigating risk and oiling the wheels for growth. These tools will help you future proof your business in a modern global economy where competition may be found anywhere in the world.

276 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 2, 2017