Business owners work hard for many years building a successful business. The rewards are worth the effort, but only when they sell their business do they finally realize the full value of their investment of time, effort and money.

However, Business Brokerage Press, Inc. reports that 80 % of privately-owned businesses cannot be sold even by skilled business brokers.

You can avoid being part of this sad statistic by creating an exit strategy.

A well-thought-out exit strategy would allow you to:

1. Sell high with the right timing.

2. Create diversified revenue streams if you desire, so you are not totally dependent on your core business.

3. Leave the competition behind. With planning you can position yourself with other revenue streams, making it easy for you to exit instead of continuing to fight your competition.

4. Leave gracefully with a desirable return on your investment.

5. Know what to do next. You can plan a life outside your business.

Don’t let stress, health, competition, economic troubles, or your family situation be your exit strategy. Be proactive and talk to your trusted advisors to lead you to a graceful exit.

I’ve been called “old school.” I don’t mind, because I am old.  I like learning new tricks, but I also like teaching young pups old tricks.

I admit openly and unashamedly that I’ve learned many new tricks from younger people.   However, this old dog can teach many young pups some old tricks.

I’m talking about basic people skills that so many people online seem to be lacking.  I’m talking about knowing and using words that sell.   Mark Twain said, “The difference between a word and the right word, is like the difference between a lightning bug and a lightning bolt.”

I’ve been a serious student of the Internet for 15 years.  I’ve learned virtually everything I know from someone younger than I am, some even younger than my grandchildren. Everything I’ve learned is valuable and useful, but there is a void online.

The void is basic knowledge of human nature and people skills.   We can reach out and touch millions of people from around the globe on the Internet, but we eventually will succeed or fail to really connect with them by understanding them.

I, like most business people online, want to influence people to do business with me, and there is only one way to do that.

I can only do that by making the other person WANT to do business with me.  There is no other way.

“The only way I can get you to do anything is by giving you what you want.” Dale Carnegie said that in 1936.  It is still true and always will be true.  People never change.

All the clever talk about ourselves, our company, our products, and our services is just that-TALK.

A classic example of a person who cannot resist talking about themselves is from a movie starring Bett Midler.  She was talking endlessly about her life to another woman when suddenly she stopped.

“Well, that’s enough about me,” she said. “Let’s talk about you. What do you think about me?”

Until we learn to deliver content that talks about what our ideal client or customer wants, we will just be spewing words into cyberspace.

Eventually you will have to interact with a prospect one-on-one, either online, on the telephone, or in person.  That is old school.

Call me old school.   I don’t care.  But I can tell you this.  If you don’t listen more than you talk, you won’t earn the business.   Then with the words you say, they had better be the right words.  Words that answer,  ”What’s in it for me?”

That’s an old truth, not an old trick.