3 top tips from Kerry Boulton

1. How are you going to get out of the business?

The first thing is give some thought as to how you’re going to get out of the business. Shutting the business down is an option, you can always liquidate. It depends on the type of business that you have. That is always an option. So think about how you’re going to actually leave the business. What sort of exit strategy are you going to engage in?

2. Have look at available resources

There’s a number of free resources that I refer to in the Million Dollar Payday book. The Unscented Truth about Exit Strategy book is more thought provoking. Because you’ve heard the expression that it takes a village to raise a child, well, it actually takes a village to exit your business, because you need people around you who have expertise in all the right areas. And if you’ve got somebody who’s standing in your shoes for you, which is the sort of role that I play, I’m not a business broker, I happen to have had a lot of personal experience. That’s why I’m on this mission to help educate business owners to understand that it really is important to think about these things to be in control. To be able to plan an exit, so you can have it on your terms, in the timeframe that you want to have.

3. Ask yourself the 5 questions

• How much longer do you want to be actively involved in your business?
• Who’s likely to be your successor? Maybe it’s your children? Could it be management? Will you sell your business?
• What do you need when you transition out of the business in terms of the transaction so that you’ve got financial independence? You have what you need for a new venture or adventure, or are you going to retire? What’s the number that you actually need?
• Do you know what your business is really worth on the open market?
• What should you be doing now to minimise your future tax liabilities? Generally speaking, you will pay tax on any sort of transfer of your business, and then you need to consider the implications of that going forward as to what you need for the rest of your life.

Kerry’s website with links to her books:
https://theexitstrategygroup.com.au/

SUMMARY KEYWORDS
business, exit strategy, businesses, business owners, work, exit, book, important, eos, years, sell, life, thought, lemon mousse, happen, run, australia, sale, wealth, terms, tax

SPEAKERS
Kerry Boulton, Debra Chantry-Taylor

Debra Chantry-Taylor  00:12

Welcome to another episode of Better Business, Better Life. I’m your host, Debra Chantry-Taylor. I’m passionate about helping entrepreneurs and their leadership teams get what they want out of business and life. On the show, I invite successful business owners and expert speakers to share their successes. They are open and honest about the highs and lows of business and also life as a business owner. We want to share those learnings with you to inspire you, but also to help you avoid some of the common mistakes. My hope is that you take something from each of these short episodes that you can put into action to help you get what you want, not only out of your business, but also your life. So good morning, and welcome to another episode of Better Business, Better Life. Today, I am joined by Kerry Boulton, who is a professional EOS Implementer, a certified exit planner and a certified value builder. She is also the author of two books. Her first one was The Uncensored Truth About Exit Strategy. And the second one is A Million Dollar Payday. Both of them are on the bestseller list. Welcome, Kerry.

Kerry Boulton  01:11

Thank you, Debra, glad to be here.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  01:14

It’s really good. I know that you and I obviously talked quite a lot for the EOS network. But I’m really keen to hear more about some of the things that you do as well the clients that you’ve worked with, and just get a sense of you know, what, why people would exit plan and what that looks like. Sure thing. Yeah. So the first thing I’d like to do is just ask you for a professional and personal best just so listeners can get to know Kerry Boulton.

Kerry Boulton  01:35

So let me start with personal best. And and I’m really proud of this actually, I made a wonderful lemon mousse. And, frankly, I don’t do a lot of cooking these days. But you know, when when you’ve been cooking for 50 years, sometimes you’ve had enough of it. So, but I have a friend’s birthday coming up, and I did a trial on it. And it was absolutely delicious. So I’ve mastered the Danish Christmas lemon mousse. Wow, sounds good. To die for. So I’m very happy with that. And I think also that just seeing out the last last Saturday of cricket blast with my 150 kids that I muster every Saturday morning. I think that’s a personal best as well, quite frankly. Anyway, something I love doing. But yeah, and professionally, I think that, you know, the the this year gone by I’m going to sort of probably put it in that context, I think professionally has, as we all know, has been quite challenging with the pandemic that’s been going on. But I think that throughout, we’ve been and I’ve certainly put you in this category as well, you know, we’ve professionally been able to help a lot of business owners and really and pivot, you know, the the work that we’ve been doing to online when necessary, and really help them get going on, you know, and keep their businesses solid throughout the whole period and put them on a good footing, you know, going forward no matter what Bible conditions we might be in. So yeah, I think I think that’s something to reflect on, which is really positive.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  03:21

Yeah, completely agree. I mean, has been challenging. But you’re right. It’s gives me such joy to kind of work with those. And yeah, through that as it does you too. Yeah, yeah. So Kerry, you’ve been obviously a professional here similar for a while we both work with those clients. But you’ve also got this the two certifications in both the exit strategy and the value building some little bit. How about that? And what what do you mean by an exit strategy?

Kerry Boulton  03:45

Yes, you know, I’m just going to reflect back to when I bought my first business, which was back in 1987. So that’s how long ago and I happened to be a general manager of the business. It was a division of a large public company. And at the time, they were looking ahead, strategically deciding that they didn’t really want to be in that particular industry. In fact, a number of industries that wanted to change direction completely and move into the health industry, because they looked ahead and could see demographically where things were going. There has all played out, of course. So this was a business involved in international freight forwarding. And we saw the I saw the opportunity to be able to do some really good things with that particular business having worked in the business for quite some time. And corporates always think about succession planning, but very few private businesses think about succession planning. Sometimes family businesses do but mostly private business owners don’t think about it. And you might coin that as exit. But I first learned about the thing called exit strategy when I had to put together a business plan to get investors to help me buy that business. I went to a very dear friend and mentor and he said, Kerry, you write the plan, you can convince me, I’ll help you get the money together. And we needed about a million dollars at the time. So and my husband and I had nothing. So hey, who cares? You don’t know what you don’t know, do you? Anyway, I happen to come across, I had no idea how to write that sort of a plan, quite frankly, it were sorry, I came across this an ad in the paper for a book called How to Write plans that win dollars, and it was by a couple of professors out of MIT in the US, and I set off for the book, this is like, click the coupon, put in your credit card details, send off for the book. And it arrived, and I literally wrote my plan by the book. In it, they said you had to have an exit strategy. So if you’re getting investors into a business, the investor needs to know how to get their money out, or what the plans are to get their money out. I mean, they’re not going to stay with you. Because you want to run this as a lifestyle business for the rest of your life, you know, they’ve got to know how they’re going to get their money out. So and the exit strategy was to grow the business and hopefully sell it off to an international group somewhere between the five and the 10 year mark. And so that was that was the sum total of the exit strategy at that particular time. Now, as it turned out, look, highs and lows, obviously, in all of that, my daughter was born the day I had signed the contract to take over the business, my first child. So that was a nice little challenge, but you don’t know what you don’t know just the same. And so that, that, that the fact that we actually had that notion highs and lows, as I said, right throughout the process with that business, but we did actually have someone come in and approach us at around the six year mark, and we did the deal sold the business I stay on for another couple of years. So nine years later, we’re out. Now, most people don’t think about who the most important investor is in their business, which of course is themselves, you know, if they’re, even if they’re 100%, shareholder, they are the most important investor in the business. So thinking about how somewhere down the track, you’re going to move on from that business is, is really important. Because guess what, we are all going to exit our businesses one day, simply because we are human, it’s the bottom line. So let’s think about it, it doesn’t really matter whether you want to consider whether you want to stay in your business for 20,30 40,50 years, or whether you really are focused on you know, building like we were building a business and selling it at a point, you know, or for it to be transitioned to someone else in the family, for instance, or management, you know, there’s, there’s so many different ways you can actually exit the business. But so but but most people don’t think about it, and they often don’t think about it until they’re on top of it. And then they’re into either a fire sale or some crisis has emerged, like you know, things that we call the Dastardly D’s, I call it, that’s my name for it the dastardly d’s, and it’s like, things like, Well, maybe it’s declining sales, you know, this, Hey, in this last couple of years that we’ve had with COVID, it’s so many business owners have rethought? What do they want to do? You know, in the future? Do they ever do they really want to be under the pressure that they’ve been under in these last couple of years. So you might have that like declining sales, you might have disagreed, you might have business partners, you might have some disagreement going on. You could just be over it. Hey, that’s the case with a lot of business owners right at this unit that just, it’s been so tough. You could I mean, divorce, unfortunately, you know, those that sort of happens and affects your businesses. You could have an accident, you could have some sort of disability happen. You could be under under water, you know, with so much debt, you could have some sort of a disaster happen. And look, the worst thing of all, it could be that, you know, someone dies in your, in your family. And, you know, that’s what’s happened as well. I have that personal experience. You know, my husband passed away three years ago, and that was our fourth business that we’ve had. We had in place fortunately, we practice what I preach. So we we had in place the right business succession agreement, the right shareholders agreement. So that was a triggering event, you know, that said, if somebody who was the shareholder passed away, then obviously, we would enact what happened now, in the event. The other our other two shareholders. We’re having trouble managing everything and getting getting along. And they both came to see me independently. And so I ended up stepping into the business for a couple of years, just about a couple of years. But, but that was never the intention. And we, we already had enacted what was required under the business succession agreement and the shareholders agreement. So I just went in there as a consultant, because of my expertise to be able to help them, you know, to get through that period, because, you know, if, if that happens, if that’s sort of one of the contingencies that you need to think about, you know, what happens if something like that occurs. And most of the time, you don’t want the partner or spouse necessarily stepping into the business, you know, you you want it to be with the continue to be the professional organization that it is. So. But yeah, so that’s, so that’s all around thinking about exit, you know, and thinking about, whatever, it doesn’t matter about the timeframe, but it’s about starting to think about it now and have some idea around what’s actually going to be for you. And, frankly, exit strategy is simply business strategy. That’s nothing else, it’s it’s nothing more than the implementation of really good business practices, such as EOS. And focusing on an enterprise value, and that’ll actually drive a much better outcome, including a better lifestyle, and, you know, then for everybody, and it will simply drive your wealth. And, you know, it’s really important to consider what stage of growth cycle that you’re in, as well. Because I think with most of our EOS clients, they’re often in the growth phase. And, you know, they’re sort of at the scale and systemize phase or even slightly beyond that. But even it’s so important to understand that when you’re in that phase, you’re really optimizing the best time to consider the succession succession, or if it’s a sale, what that next phase of your, of your your life will be. And then, because if you ride the business over the top, in terms of its growth trajectory, nothing’s, you know, you’re thinking, Oh, I’m just gonna go for another couple of years, then, you know, you’re just sort of waiting for too long, you’ve, you’ve gone over the top of the growth curve, and you’re not really, you’re not really ready. As I said, before, you know, you never know what might happen. But if you can, if you can really just give it some further thought, and understand how you are looking at those sorts of contingencies. If you end up with sort of being low on energy, and you lose the passion for your business and the motivation and you just want out, then that’s not going to give you the most successful outcome in terms of reaching the, you know, the the wealth levels, necessarily, that you’re looking for, as well.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  13:16

So in that respect, then so it’s almost like you, you should always be planning for the exit right from the beginning. And knowing what you want out of the business and when you want that exit to happen. So you can actually maximize the value at a time when you’re still engaged when you’re still. Yeah,

Kerry Boulton  13:33

yeah, when you’re ready, when you’re absolutely really so I mean, two things to think about that. Yes, your business and make sure you should always be running your business so that it’s ready to sell at any stage. It doesn’t matter because you never know when someone’s going to come along. Some of some of our listeners might remember a guy by the name of Kerry Packer, who was certainly famous here in Australia. And have you heard of him get?

Debra Chantry-Taylor  14:04

Yeah, I have. I’ve lived in Australia for 10 years.

Kerry Boulton  14:06

Yes. Okay. So you will, so he he’s obviously well, the Packer family, media moguls basically they have been, however, at the time was back in the 80s. And here the Kerry Packer own channel nine in the Nine Network around Australia and Alan Bond, who is also another entrepreneur, Australian entrepreneur, bit of a wreck on tour, I think, anyway, hey, when the Americans copied 1983 for Australia, so we were happy about that, that largest life and quite a character as well. Well, he came along and he offered Kerry Packer a billion dollars for the Channel Nine Network. And Kerry Packer is famously saying that you only ever get one Alan Bond in your lifetime and I’ve had mine and so of course he sold the network on you. He did back back three years later when the traumatic quarter of the price because because the Alan Bond team couldn’t run it. But hey, that’s another story. But what I want to relate that to is that always having your business ready to sell means that you are ready for that Alan Bond, if he ever if that our bond ever comes along in your lifetime. And you know what I have to say we had that experience as well, we were so lucky we go. What’s that Oprah saying, you know, like, comes to being prepared or so I think I’ve seen that quote in something that you’ve written dip as well. And it happened for us in 2007, which was with our third business, in fact, and the, which was in real estate, and somebody wanted to buy our shares, they wanted that business. And I can tell you right now, we were we we had not even contemplated selling the business at all. But they came along, they made us an offer too good to refuse. And we said yes, thank you, we’ll have that. And we’re out of here. And it was really fortunate. I mean, that was my husband actually stayed on as a as listing cell sales agent, because he wanted to it wasn’t conditional, as it turned out, that was not conditional in terms of the sale. But it and for him, that was that was great, because he loved doing that. But he then got sick a year, after a couple of years, he then actually got sick with bowel cancer. And he resigned and left. So he did get well again, and then we started again, in 2011. So you know those things can happen. So you’ve got to have something else to move on to. But as I said before, unfortunately, it got him six years later, and he passed away. But you know, the thing is that you never know when these opportunities will come along. And so always having your business ready, regardless, is going to allow you to take advantage of that opportunity if it happens. And it’s also going to mean that your produce that you’re actually running your business for to have it as valuable as it can possibly be. That’s better for you at the same time, it is absolutely better to you at the same time, because you’ll have much better income and you’ll be creating a basis for your future wealth. Because sadly, I you know, there are some research has been done by the Commonwealth Bank, actually, a few years ago now. And I don’t think the numbers really will have changed, but of the business owners that they surveyed 90 90% of the business owners wealth was tied up in their businesses. So when you consider and this again, was a research study done? I think it was yes, it was delights that 80% of the businesses that go on the market are at only 20% of the businesses sell that go on the market. So if you’ve got 90% of your wealth tied up in your business, and you might have and you’re selling it, yeah, exactly. So, so so. So what I’m really doing is just saying to people, think about it, think about what your strategy is doesn’t matter whether it’s in three years, or 33 years from now, just think about how is how it is that you might want to exit your business one day. And the business is one thing, a lot of you know it can be family succession, you might sell it, it could be management by gosh, they’re there are many different ways to actually exit your business. But I also want you to think about people to think about then, if you happen to be a bit closer to that, what are you going to do, personally, so And often when I give talks, I’d say to people that I’m now in what I call my sixth reinvention. So I have retired three times, the first time was only two weeks. That was in 1996 can’t cope with this anyway. And I took myself off to university because I’d never been to uni, you know, started working when I was 15. So unfortunately, my sister and I, we actually lost our parents at a very young age as well. So we’re out in the workforce, you know, probably sooner than most but anyway. So I took myself off to university and did a master’s degree in entrepreneurship and innovation. And at the same time started another business in business coaching. And we bought into our first real estate business. So we were busy parent and we had two children. So we were we were busy people. And then you know I love doing what I was doing with business coaching and did that for nine years. And we had about 120 clients at the time. And then I didn’t think about it that that I think, thought I maybe I need to spend a little bit of time with it. kids before they completely grow up and disappear on us. But so I became mum sexy for a few years, and we had the real estate business going great guns as well. And, you know, leopards don’t change their spots, but it’s like, throwing yourself into all sorts of other things, which, you know, for me, being a person that loves business, I threw myself into our local community into the schools, you know, ended up president, of course of the parents association, and I am still heavily involved locally with our community because of I really love it with you know, the, the local community is fantastic, even though my son has just turned 31 and my daughter’s 34. In fact, they’ve been hooked in as well. I mean, we they came through the local sports club, and as I said, I still run the, the cricket blast program on Saturday mornings. So I’ve been involved for 26 years, and I’ve been 16 years secretary of the club. But you know, so this is, these are things that are creating purpose. And so for people who are near their exit, it’s really important to think about what it is what else you want to do. I mean, I was in rotary as well for 21 years. And I thoroughly enjoyed doing it. But at the end of the day, something had to give I was trying to do too much. I still try to do too much. But yeah, hey, that’s who you are.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  21:26

That’s right. Yeah. Okay, so let’s just imagine that, you know, one of the listeners is running a successful kind of established business, and they’re thinking about, okay, hadn’t really thought about exiting, but I probably should do, where would they first start? What would they do?

Kerry Boulton  21:39

The first thing that you’d really want to do would be to sit down and give some thoughts, you know, so maybe these sort of five questions, really, at the high level more than anything? How much longer do you want to be actively involved in your business? And I mean, if it’s vague, and you say, Oh, well, at least another five years, well, dig a little bit deeper than that. Go, you think about it. Because it makes it easier for you to be able to look, look back at what you want to accomplish before you actually walk away. You know, and it’s also important because it might, it actually triggers the, the other actions that you want to, you might want to take strategically, you know, for your business, so they take, exits take a long time. If you think that you can just have it all happen and execute in 60 days, then think again, because that’s not it takes a long time it does. So it’s around thinking strategically about where where you want your business to go, which of course dovetails beautifully into what we do with EOS, really important. So maximizing the value of your businesses, number one thinking about, which of course, is dovetails into that question, how much longer do you really want to be actively involved in your business? Number two, who’s likely to be your successor? Have you thought about it? Have you thought about is it? I mean, do you have children that might want to be involved in the business is their family? Maybe you could be in a situation we have grown up children now. And, yes, they’re going to be involved, but there’s one that will be appropriate one that won’t be you know, or not, you know, or might be not who you think you know? So. So there is if you think about who your successor might be, maybe it’s children? Could it be management? Will you sell your business? I mean, look, so for me, like with the business that I was, in early in the freight forwarding business, was part of mainly plus, then they wanted to sell it to an international group, and they couldn’t do it. But I said, I was interested. And they finally came back to me. So we did a management buyout. So you know, management could be one way of doing it. Or, as I said, would you look for a buyer that can actually take it to new heights, you know, and make it far more valuable? So maybe it could be one of your customers, or maybe it could be a supplier? Or maybe it’s a competitor. I mean, there’s so many different options that you need to think about. But uh, but it just depends on you. So it depends on your goals. And you know, what sort of industry you’re in what your company culture is, as well. So the third thing I’d like you to think about as well would be, what do you need when you transition out of the business in terms of the transaction so that you’ve got financial independence and that you know, you have what you need for what if you’re going on to a new new venture or adventure, or are you going to retire? What’s the number that you actually need? And it’s a freedom number. So, you know the there are impacts on that, of course, what you’re going to pay in terms of taxation. Do you have the right structure? I’ve worked with business owners who’ve said, Yes, they’ve got the right structure. But then when we’ve dug into it, they don’t have the right structure. And they’re going to be up for a far more tax than they anticipated. So it’s really important to make sure that you have a look at your legal structure and your potential potential future taxation, liabilities, if you do sell the business. Thinking about what you’re going to do next, as I’ve talked about already, do you have a hobby? Do you have a project? Do you have a new venture? Do you want to go build a house somewhere? Do you want to travel, you want to go back to school like I did. And I gotta tell you, I ended up teaching at the university for three years as well, after I finished the degree, they got me back because they said I was on the wrong side of the desk all the time. So whatever those those things are, that you think you might want to do, they will actually affect the transaction. And I often, I also often tell the story about my uncle, who was an incredibly successful businessman started from zero, you know, as an electrician working out of his parents backyard, and he was in electrical contracting, and consulting and engineering. And he grew a business at the time, he had 14 Different companies, 500 staff, he was all over Australia. And I remember sitting down with him, after we’d sold the freight business, and he said to me, Kerry, I wish I’ve done I’d done what you’ve just done 10 years ago, it ultimately took him another 10 years to actually get out of all the businesses, and he was absolutely, he was really excited. Fantastic, I’ll be able to play golf three days a week, I can catch up with my mates, we can have coffees, we can do lunches, etc, etc, etc. And which was great, but it doesn’t last, you know, it lasted about a year, unfortunately, 12 months later, he was in clinical depression, because he hadn’t ended up well, he hadn’t thought about his, his identity. And most his identity was his business. So when, when you’re on the golf course, you are not the owner of that business any longer. You know, you’re sort of you don’t want someone coming up to you and sort of saying, Well, who are you when you used to be somebody was now you’re not? Yeah, so it’s very, very important, and particularly for men, because unfortunately, men seem to be less inclined to think about what else what else it is that they’re going to be. And they that, to acknowledge that your identity is really tied up in who you are in your business is really important. And then to look for how you’re going to recreate that identity and what else it is that you’re going to do. You might have a you know, a great loving partnership at home, etc. But you know, it could be I married you, for better or worse, but not for lunch. Women have created a better at creating lives that are not totally dependent on the one identity. So think about that. Think about your plans for your next step. And whatever that’s going to be and run your numbers, run your numbers and understand what it is that you’re going to be needing in your back pocket. And most people think about the maximum they think that their businesses worth so that this leads me on to the next point, which is Do you know what your business is really worth? on the open market? Yeah, regardless of whether or not you’re going to sell it. Just think, do you know what your business is worth? So I highly advocate getting an independent valuation. It doesn’t have to be something that you pay 1000s and 1000s of dollars for. In fact, it’s a certified value builder, one of the things I can do is give people the opportunity to do that questionnaire online doesn’t nothing. But it’ll benchmark you doesn’t cost you a penny it’s going to benchmark your business against other businesses in in your same industry. You can pop the numbers in there, it’s completely confidential, and it will give you a benchmark valuation. So you have some idea. And so it’s really important to understand and know what your business is worth. And as I said also earlier, think about your what what should you be doing now to minimize your future tax liabilities because you will pay tax on any sort of transfer of your business generally speaking, and then you need to consider the implications of that going forward. as to you know what you need for the rest of your life?

Debra Chantry-Taylor  30:03

It’s perfect sense. Hey, look, you’ve already given us five really great questions that people can actually ask themselves. But in terms of top three tips, what would you say to people who are considering what their exit strategy looks like?

Kerry Boulton  30:16

Well, I think really first thing is give some thought as to who? How you’re going to get out of the business? And if shutting the business down is that’s an option, you can always liquidate? I mean, it depends on the type of business that you have. That is always an option. Yeah, so think about what it is that how you’re going to actually leave the business. You know, what sort of exit strategy are you going to engage in?

Debra Chantry-Taylor  30:44

And would your book help with that?

Kerry Boulton  30:47

Oh totally. Yeah, absolutely. I’ve found there’s a number of free resources that I refer to in the Million Dollar Payday book, especially. The Unscented Truth it book is really about more of a heart, it’s thought provoking. Because like a, you know, you’ve heard the expression that it takes a village to raise a child, well, it actually takes a village to, to exit your business, because you need, you need people around you who have expertise in all the right areas. So you know, the tax lawyer, the financial planner, probably the, you need the accountant to your accountant who’s going to fix up your books, maybe an estate planner, as well. It’s really important. So and if you’ve got somebody who’s standing in your shoes for you, which is the sort of role that I, I play, I’m, I’m not a business broker, and I’m not an m&a expert, I happen to have had a lot of personal experience, which helps, you know, in that regard, and that’s why I’m on this mission, you know, as and to help educate business owners to understand that it really it’s so important to think about these things to be in control. And to to be able to plan an exit, so you can have it on your terms. And in in the timeframe that you want to have. I guess that’s really the the nub of it. Yeah,

Debra Chantry-Taylor  32:23

Fantastic. So first one is thought about how you can go the business, definitely have a look at your books and the resources in there and ask those five questions. And that should get you some way towards yeah, getting an exit strategy in place. Perfect. Kerry, I know that you’re based in Melbourne, you actually work with people all over the world, don’t you?

Kerry Boulton  32:40

I do as a matter of fact. Yeah, I do. I work with some clients I’ve worked with in North America, as well as the UK. And actually, I haven’t worked with anybody in New Zealand directly at this stage. But it doesn’t look, it doesn’t matter. You know, the principles are the same. But I’ve certainly worked with businesses all over Australia, in every single state. So yeah, it’s, it’s just giving yourself enough time is the answer to all of those questions. So

Debra Chantry-Taylor  33:10

Don’t be in a hurry, because that’s when it cost you. Absolutely. Okay, great. Well, if anybody wants to get hold of you, how would they find you?

Kerry Boulton  33:16

So there’s, you can go to my website, which is theexitstrategygroup.com.au. You’ll find me on LinkedIn where I’m at I’m Kerry Boulton, Kerry with a Y, Boulton with a U. I’ve even got Holdsworth in LinkedIn, because that’s my married name. So you can find me on LinkedIn as well. You can just reach out and connect there. And yeah, the all the resources that I’ve talked about are available through my website as well.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  33:49

And of course, you’re also on the EOS worldwide website as well.

Kerry Boulton  33:51

I am absolutely and, yeah, I mean, I I learned about EOS. So the I’ve told you the story before I learned about EOS when I was over at the Exit Planning Institute conference in the US and saw a presentation from a couple of m&a private equity guys who were demonstrating how they evaluated businesses based on the six key components in EOS. Oh, really? Yes. And that is how I learned about it. So I came back and did my own due diligence, you know, back then and discovered, get discovered it from my perspective, because it wasn’t really top of mind anyway here. And yeah, I thought wow, this is fantastic. Because here’s this readiness, business attractiveness, personal readiness and financial readiness, business readiness when i do when i What ran through my initial assessment with PayPal and you’re the usually highlight for me was about 360 questions we go through. It often highlights the gaps. Well, it does it highlights the gaps and so we work we work on closing the gaps and EOS is dovetails perfectly into the business element. So, yeah, I just, that’s why I became a professional EOS implementer as well. So yeah, chance to be able to offer another string to my bow. Okay.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  35:18

And that was also why Firefly ended up as a venture capitalist investing in EOS, right? Because EOS runs on EOS. Yeah, that’s right. Definitely makes your business far more attractive, which is great, right? Yeah. Hey, Kerry, we could talk all day, I’m sure. But that has been really informative. Thank you so much for sharing. I will make sure we’ve got links to all those resources in the description for the podcast. But thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it.

Kerry Boulton  35:42

Absolute pleasure, Debra, thank you.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  35:45

Thanks again for joining us on Better Business, Better Life with me, your host Debra Chantry-Taylor. If you enjoy what you heard, then please subscribe to this podcast and let us help you to get what you want out of business and life. Each week we release a new short episode which will give a success story and three takeouts to put into action immediately. These will help you take your business from good to great. The podcast is also supported by free resources, templates and useful tools, which you can find at DebraChantry-Taylor.com. I am a trained entrepreneur, leadership and business coach, a professional EOS implementer and an established business owner myself. I work with established businesses to help them get what they want. Feel free to contact me if you’d like to have a chat about how I might be to help you. Or if you’d like to join me as a guest on this podcast. Thanks again to NZ audio editors for producing this podcast. See you on the next episode.

Debra Chantry-Taylor

Professional EOS Implementer | Entrepreneurial Leadership & Business Coach | Business Owner

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