Equity Value Enhancement

Chapter 3Focus on Business Owners

What is the result of failing to leverage advisors in this way? It is untapped knowledge nuggets—nuggets that can have a significant effect on revenue, profits, and value. One of the difficulties that advisors contend with is that much of their advice is geared toward preventing the likelihood of significant disruption (e.g., disputes, audits, or litigation), so it's hard to see the results of their work.

First things first: I believe that David Maister, author of The Trusted Advisor, spoke truthfully when he shared the following about business owners:

[M]ost buyers of professional services, even relatively experienced ones, are quite aware of a number of risks. There is the financial risk, emotional risk, the risk of lost time, the risk of embarrassment…[as a result] the devil you know is better than the one you don't…. [Therefore] professionals in a sense sell confidence, security and ease.¹

From my perspective, a good advisor asks good questions, and a great advisor has the humility to know she doesn't have all the answers and earns the right to offer advice only after showing interest in the person(s) she is seeking to serve. In other words, great advisors provide and seek answers on behalf of the client's needs.

As noted previously, this book is relevant to a variety of constituencies in addition to the C-suite, owners, and their families. However, the information contained in this chapter is specifically directed to you, the business ...