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The Small Business Five Year Plan

• American Gutter Monkeys, LLC • Season 1 • Episode 19

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Most small businesses never look beyond the day-to-day—or maybe a year out at best. But if you want to build real value, you need a plan that reaches further.

In this episode, Chris and Dennis walk through what a true five-year business plan looks like: how to set short-term goals, when to reassess and pivot, and why defining what business you’re actually in is a critical early milestone. (Hint: Dennis thought he was in the ski business. He wasn’t.)

Whether you're starting fresh or already in year two, this episode lays out a clear, practical path to growth—how to set real goals, track your progress, make smart adjustments, and stay focused on building a business that lasts.

chris:

When you're starting a business, it's easy to focus on the day-to-day Getting things off the ground, making sure of the first sale just keep things moving. But if you want to build something that lasts, you need to think further ahead, as Dennis puts it because, remember, a goal without a timeline is really just a dream.

chris:

In this episode of Monkey Business Radio, we're diving into the five-year plan. While every startup needs a short-term, medium-term and long-term strategy, If you're starting out, or even thinking about starting, this episode is a blueprint. We'll help you lay the short-term, medium-term and long-term goals and make sure you're building a business, not just chasing busy work. We have a great show for you, so grab a cup of coffee, sit back, relax and welcome to Monkey Business Radio. Hello Dennis, how are we doing today? Good Chris, how are you Good? Good, what do we got on the agenda for today, the five-year?

dennis:

plan. Why every startup should have a short, medium and a long-range plan.

chris:

All right, good, this is kind of an amalgamation of a lot of our podcasts we've done in the past couple of weeks. Here We've been touching on this topic. Today we're just going to dive into it a little deeper.

dennis:

One of the things, chris, that I notice about a lot of business owners is when they start their business, they usually start it for a variety of reasons. The auto mechanic he wants to be his own boss. The restaurant owner he's got his own recipes and he's got his own style and he wants to become the restaurant owner. He wants to be the head chef. But a lot of times and these are people that I know very well, people I associate with a lot of times they don't have a medium and a long range plan. Their goal is to get the restaurant open, get up and running.

dennis:

You know, one of my friends just went back to work for a mechanic. He went out on his own for two or three years, struggled a bit. I mean, he's a good mechanic, he just was a little light on the business end of things. That was the thing that made things very difficult for him. And that's why every startup should have a short, medium and a long range plan a one year, a three year and a five year plan. And that's why every startup should have a short, medium and a long-range plan, a one-year, a three-year and a five-year plan. And in looking towards a five-year plan, a five-year long-range plan. Then we can develop steps along the way six months, 12 months, strike points along the way, yardstick measurements, so we'll know whether we are closing in on that five-year goal, that five-year plan. Remember, a goal without a timeline is really just a dream.

chris:

Yeah, there's got to be some hard and fast strike points along the way that you want to meet and this is going to be tough, especially because, like you said, you get your hands full just starting out. But, like many of the topics we touch on in this podcast, the earlier you start the better. And all these different things financial planning and all these things oh, absolutely.

dennis:

I remember a young kid. He was a student of mine way, way back. He was in college at the time and his goal well, his idea was he didn't want to be like his parents. His dad was a really high-end mechanic and his mom owned a horse farm up in the White Mountains. She did training and teaching riding. She did shows a whole variety of revenue streams from her horse farm and he said I don't want to be like my parents, I don't want to be working like that. He said I'm just going to invent an app and then I'll be a millionaire. Actually, he was probably in high school when he said it. He was a student of mine in a martial arts school that I owned. He popped in and out as he went off to college. Great kid, really good kid. He and I were sitting down six, eight years after he said that to me. He was now out of college and he had a job and he was doing his thing.

dennis:

I said how's that going? How's that app thing going? And he looked at me he goes you remember that. And I said, oh gosh, yeah, I remember that. And he laughed. And he goes yeah, that was.

dennis:

I don't even know why I said that. I don't even know why I thought that, but a lot of younger kids think that they have a. They see that somebody invented an app and became a millionaire. Well, they don't see the work that goes behind that Inventing the app. That's like 5%. Yeah, that's just an egregious example of a goal without a timeline is nothing more than a dream. So, yeah, so when you're starting out your business, like we always say, chris, don't go to where the puck is. Go to where the puck is going to be when you get there. Start out early with a vision to see where do you want to be in five years and how are we going to get there? So the questions that I always ask is what business are you in? I used to be an innkeeper. I owned an inn. I was a bed and breakfast. It was in the White Mountains. Am I in the ski business? Am I in the snowmobile business? Am I in the golf business? I am in the hiking business.

dennis:

What we found out is we are in the three-day getaway business. Doesn't matter what you're doing when you come here. In fact, in the wintertime we were very, very successful and we had far fewer skiers than most inns and hotels and bed and breakfast Because skiers if they're cross-country skiers, they might cancel last minute if the snow conditions aren't good. Downhill skiers if they're cross-country skiers, they might cancel last minute if the snow conditions aren't good. Downhill skiers if it's going to be a rainy, warm, nasty weekend, they might cancel last minute and they don't want to go skiing. But if people are coming away just for a three-day getaway, a three-day break in their normal routine, they're coming no matter what. That's interesting.

dennis:

So what business are you in? We were in the three-day getaway business. Four days is different. We try to turn them over twice a week. You want to bring in a full house on Friday, check them out all on Monday, bring in another full house on Tuesday, keep them for three days, check them out on Friday and then just start the cycle all over again. Other questions that you may want to ask yourself right out of the gate year one are you properly funded?

chris:

Yeah, this is a big one. I've had a personal experience with that coming up a little short that first year and it didn't work out. What was that? It was a toy company we started a long time ago.

dennis:

You told me about that. Yeah, you did Right, right, right.

chris:

Yeah, I remember, because my brother took one look at our plan and said you're not properly funded, so we'll work our way around that.

dennis:

Turns out. What products and services are you selling? Who is your target market? Sometimes you ask people who's your target market and he's a roofing company. Well, anybody. Well, how do you identify that if it's anybody or everybody? If you're going to advertise by digital marketing, you've got to identify the neighbors, the neighborhoods, the value of the homes where they're located. So identification of your target market is huge by age, by income levels.

chris:

We talk about that a lot here because of course gutter business on Cape Cod very clear target market there and it's your more elderly types that own a home?

dennis:

Sure, so you need a marketing strategy, a pricing strategy in place. Proof of concept is huge. Proof of concept is an often overlooked component Proving the concept. Is the business model viable? Do people really need and want your products and services? And if they do, then your proof of concept should pan out.

chris:

You kind of explained that in some of the past podcasts about how you kind of did that at Gutter Monkeys. You actually started doing all sorts of different work decks, roofs, all sorts of different things. Figure it out after a while about the gutter cleaning Basically no one doing it.

dennis:

Sure, we answered the question is there enough gutter cleaning business to keep two, three, four, five crews busy on Cape Cod all year long? And the answer was yes. Now, no one had ever done it. That's why we needed a proof of concept. If you're in the restaurant business, let's take Cape Cod. There are so many fantastic restaurants on Cape Cod. The proof of concept initially is yes. Is your food good? Is it appealing to the target market? Number two is can you put enough people through your door to make it a viable business? And lastly is can you do that all year long, even during the off season? It's a tough proof of concept.

chris:

It is. Yeah, we ate out at a particularly nice restaurant and unfortunately it was too bad because it was a brand new restaurant. The owner was excited about it. My meal came out it was probably one of the worst meals I've ever had and I was just I felt so bad. Normally I would go and send it back, but I felt so bad for this guy because he had just come out and said you know, this is a brand new restaurant, we just opened it. I'm so proud. I'm just wondering how did that meal come out of that kitchen like that? You know he's got a great location, beautiful inside, just all redone, and the food came out. It was just awful, Was that here on the Cape.

chris:

Yeah, it was on the Cape, no kidding yeah.

dennis:

We'll leave his name off the books.

chris:

We're going to leave. Normally I would send it back. I actually probably should have did it. I kind of did this service. I should have maybe pulled them aside and just told them about it. But it kind of struck me that how did that happen? How would that happen? How would a food like that leave a kitchen of a brand new restaurant like that and be in that state? But oh yeah, it was too bad.

dennis:

So by the end of year one. You're a startup. One of the most important pieces to your puzzle is your inner circle. So by the end of year one and I don't care what business you're in you need a banker. You need an accountant, a lawyer If you have partners in your business, or consultants that you use, business mentors, maybe that you use all with experience, knowledge and skills by the end of year one you want your inner that's what I call my inner circle. You want your team in place. Don't wait till you need a lawyer to find one right. Don't wait till you need a banker before you go look for one. You know you want to have your banker. You want to have your people in place. You want to have your accountant in place, our accountant, dave boy.

dennis:

We talked to Dave probably four or five times during the year before tax season. We ask him questions, we throw ideas out to him and he throws us information on tax laws that are applicable to that. So build your inner circle, banker especially. And again, as I always say, don't e-bank exclusively. I don't do any e-banking at all.

dennis:

My partner, andy, or or my office manager one of us three walks into that bank at least one or two times a week, during busy seasons three times a week. I'm in that bank. I know everybody in the bank, so if I ever needed some advice or a line of credit or anything like that, when I had a check a customer's check came in odd the other day quick phone call to my bank. Customer's check came in odd the other day Quick phone call to my bank. They know who I am. They cleared it up in a minute. So yeah, build your inner circle during that first year of business. Have your banker, your lawyer, your accountant, just have all your people as a part of your inner circle and converse with those people frequently, talk to them, do dinner with them once in a while. Make them part of your friendship.

chris:

Yeah, you know, touched on that point and I know this was always a pain point for myself. But they're going to tell you things you don't want to hear and that's really important and I know personal experience. That's a tough thing and I know you've talked about it on the podcast as well. But it's good to hear, especially in that first year when you can make changes and you haven't gone too far down the line.

dennis:

Yeah, you don't want to surround yourself with yes men all the time. If two people are thinking exactly the same thing all the time, then only one of them is doing the thinking. We just had a little meeting before, right Before we started the podcast, Four of us at the table. Not all of us agreed on everything, but that's okay, right.

chris:

Learned a lot.

dennis:

Right, learned a lot as far as medium range plans. We get into year two and three. We've got a full year, or maybe year and a half, under our belt, we've got some metrics to work with and so during this we're going to call this our mid-range, our years two and three First thing I say is, if you're accomplishing all of your goals, you're not setting the bar high enough. First thing I say is, if you're accomplishing all of your goals, you're not setting the bar high enough. You want to set attainable goals, but you don't want them to be so easy, easily attainable that you can accomplish them all the time, because you're not going to be pushing the limits, you're not going to be pushing the envelope and leaving your comfort zone. So, set attainable goals and push the envelope on those. It'll require that you leave your comfort zone periodically, not too far outside of your comfort zone, and just push that envelope a little bit.

dennis:

During years two and three. There's the look back. You're always looking back. What did we do our first year and now we're into our second and third year. How are we doing? How are things?

chris:

going. This is where those financial records are so important. We talked about last week you know that ability to go look back and actually learn about what's been going on in your business that you might not even be aware of.

dennis:

Yeah. And then ask yourself again what business are we in? Is it still the same or has it changed? And getting back to my days as an innkeeper, I remember those first year or two, first couple of years we were advertising ski packages, we were advertising a whole bunch of other different things until I realized we're not in the ski business, we are in the three-day getaway business, and that's eye-opening. It changes your marketing, it changes who you market to and it also changes the income bracket of who you're marketing to. It's interesting, right? Sure, sure, this new three-day getaway market may have a little bit more disposable income to spend when they come to your place of business and they're likely to repeat all year long.

chris:

Yeah, they don't have to be skiers, they don't have to be this, that or the other thing, they're just trying to get away.

dennis:

A skier's coming up once or twice during the winter and ski with you, your golf people. They're going to come up in the summertime and they're just going to golf and maybe they'll golf in the fall, but probably not. But the three-day getaway they'll come up three, four times a year. They don't care what time of year it is, they're just looking for a getaway. Very interesting process.

chris:

So always ask yourself what business are we in? That was when the kids were little. We'd take off if we had coverage for the kids. So our parents are available.

dennis:

Okay, three days, right, yeah, yeah, exactly. Your parents are available. Okay, three days, right, yeah, yeah, exactly. Also, groups used to come up, like work groups, the office manager.

chris:

Oh, that's an interesting one I wouldn't think of that one, the office manager of a small company.

dennis:

she kind of runs things back in the day, yeah, back in the 80s and the 90s, and she'd put together a group of 12 or 15 coworkers. They just do a three-day getaway. Sometimes they ski, sometimes they would hike, but they're just coming up three or four times a year. So, yeah, constantly ask yourself what business are we in. Try to step back out of the picture and take a look back at yourself and ask yourself what business are we in? If you're a mechanic, are you in the automotive business, the repair business, or is it older cars? Is it antique cars? Is it a certain type of car? Do you specialize in SUVs? You know, there may be something there that you're not seeing.

dennis:

I knew a gentleman back in the day who he lived in Newton and he's a veterinarian and he only did cats. Cats are the most numerous pet they out, I think. At one point I was told they outnumber humans in this country. Oh my gosh, there's more pet cats than people and most people that own a dog have a dog or two, but there's a lot of people that have like seven cats. Yeah, and this guy specializes. He's in Newton, all he does is cats. What a great idea.

chris:

High-end cats too. If you're living in Newton, those are high-end cats.

dennis:

Absolutely. Do we need a high? You know year two. Do you need a hiring strategy and, looking back, what concepts worked, which ones didn't? Do we need to make adjustments? You know, check out your pricing. This is year two. Look back Are you charging enough? Are you charging too much?

dennis:

In the contracting business, some people get disappointed. They put out 10 quotes and they only get three of them and they'll get disappointed. They didn't score those other seven. Some people cut prices and they sharpen their pencil. They want to get every single quote. I can tell you I've been in the contracting business a long, long time If you're getting all your quotes, you're not charging enough money.

dennis:

You should not get all your quotes because if you're a high-end carpenter, if you're a high-end contractor, there's always somebody out there who's going to undercut you for price. You don't want to try to win every bid. You want to identify your target market. Let's say that's upper middle income, people who have lovely homes and want to keep their homes beautiful. They're not afraid to spend a little bit of money to do that. Well, that's your target market. They're not bottom feeders, they're not tire kickers, they're not looking for the cheapest price. So, yeah, identify your target market and make sure that your pricing is in line with what they believe your product and services are worth, and then market to that target market. Market to those people.

dennis:

Is it digital marketing? Is it radio? Is it some other form of marketing? And you know how many jobs a year do you need? You know these are things you want to ask yourself into year two. And then again, funding and financing growth. Is it time that you need another truck? Do you need to put an addition on your restaurant? Are you, if you're an innkeeper, do you need to expand your kitchen? Year two and three you've got a little bit of history behind you. Do you need funding or financing for growth? Ask yourself that question. And building a growth chart. You always like the growth charts that we use here, chris.

chris:

Yeah, I found them really interesting. A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into those growth charts because they're sort of the map of how gutter monkeys got started. Sweat and Tears went into those growth charts because they're sort of the map of how gutter monkeys got started.

dennis:

Well, a growth chart in the restaurant world is. Well, let's say, in my world I was an innkeeper. So the number of rooms that I have and the number of people that those rooms can accommodate has to align with the number of seats in my dining room, and the number of seats in my dining room will be indicative of how many fannies I can put in those seats. My kitchen has to be able to accommodate that amount of people twice a day breakfast and dinner and my parking lot has to accommodate enough parking spaces so that all of those people can come and stay at my facility. If any one of those falls short, then we have to make an adjustment. I remember when I put an addition on, I added four new guest rooms and I also added a gift shop. But four new guest rooms, that's four more couples, that's eight more people, and I realized I don't have enough parking spaces. So we had to cut down some trees and clear some area and we added on to our parking capacity.

dennis:

That's a business growth chart. You add in, you know, on one column, all of the components that are necessary to run your business and on the other grid is how many, how much of each, including marketing. You know, if you're in the restaurant business and you add a wing with you know 36 more seats, you know, maybe you add six, eight, 10 more tables, 36 seats. Okay, you're going to need 20 more parking spaces and if you add that many seats, you're probably going to have to build out some capacity in your kitchen. But you also might need to add to your marketing budget because you're going to have to fill 36 more seats. You want to turn them over twice at dinner, maybe even two and a half times. So, yeah, you're going to have to put in you know 72 to 90 more dinners per night. What type of marketing budget do you need to have that will allow you to have that amount of an increase?

dennis:

So we call it a business growth chart. I build them all the time for different businesses and you just got to gather information in your industry. So by years two and three, you, the business owner, you should know most of those components, and not only from your own experience but also from your inner circle. Just talking with your banker, your banker is going to say, hey, we have a dozen restaurants that we work with and here's what some of the other restaurants are doing so, you're going to gain information from your inner circle and you're going to gain a lot of experience, and that's what I always recommend that you use to build your business growth chart.

chris:

Yeah, I like it too. Of course, in the American Gutter Monkeys I'm looking for franchisees and it's a great chart to put in front of our franchisees because it kind of shows them the path that number one, cape Cod gutter monkey, took, and number two the path that we could help them take as well. So that's kind of why I'm also very interested in this growth chart.

dennis:

I remember the first day you saw it, you asked me is there a blueprint? That's what you said. Is there some form of a blueprint that you have that a new franchisee can follow? I said, oh yeah, it's right here. And I printed it out and you looked at it and you said, oh my gosh. Yeah, this is all you need to know. Yeah, it was great. It really is that simple.

chris:

Yeah, you know, if you take that chart and then of course you've got to kind of marry that up with taking the leap and believing in that chart, because some of those steps you make in that growth chart you have to make them before you're ready to do it, before the business shows up. You've got to have the trucks, you've got to hire the people. So there's that leap of faith that goes along with that growth chart. But yeah it's an easy concept to understand if you're looking at it. Not so easy to implement necessarily.

dennis:

But if you use it on a regular basis, like, for example, today at our little powwow before we did the podcast, one of the topics that Andy brought up was we need to restaff. We need about four more guys in the field in the next two to four weeks. I'm thinking two in the next month and maybe two the following month and then two more as we get toward the latter part of the summer. And we know this because we all have a business growth chart and we use it of the summer. And we know this because we all have a business growth chart and we use it all the time, to where we don't even need to take the chart out and look at it. We just know this is what's going on.

dennis:

We had a rough quarter, the first quarter of 2025, very cold weather, very rainy weather. Then we had a bit of a stock market crash there, which it seems to have rebounded, but a lot of things happened that had a little bit of an impact on our home service business and we didn't know if this was a recession or was it weather related and then exacerbated by this little bit of a crash we had on Wall Street. We didn't know, but we know because we look at the numbers every month and the numbers tell the story. We made some adjustments, we tightened our belt and now things are back on track. And now we know, because of our business growth mindset, that, yeah, we need to hire two to four more people, two to four more guys in the field over the next, say, two to six weeks. And that just comes from being aware of your business and having that, you know, business growth mindset Right.

chris:

We'll put up a example of a business chart up here, a business growth chart, and then you can take a look at it on the podcast video.

dennis:

And you can. You make them for your own business too. And as you, when you first make it your own business growth chart for your business, for your type of business, it's going to be very rudimentary and you're going to make some changes year two, year three, year four, and you're going to be constantly adding to that business growth chart and it's great knowledge to have. Eventually it just becomes secondhand knowledge. It's living right in your back pocket anytime you need it. The five-year plan so as we get to year five, that's sort of the. It's not the end of the line, it's not the end of your business, it's just the end of your five-year plan. And by the time you hit that five-year plan, you're going to have another five-year plan that's going to take you to year 10. And at this point you're going to ask yourself or you should ask yourself are we building a business or are we just making money?

dennis:

There's a difference between the two. I know so many people that are very skilled tradesmen, for example, who don't really reinvest in their business. They keep their business small. It's a two, three person company, you know, installing kitchens and baths and that type of thing, making a lot of money. But if the owner ever gets hit by a bus, then Pete's Kitchens and Baths. If Pete gets hit by a bus, they're out of business. And so you need to ask yourself and there's no right or wrong answer You've got to ask yourself am I in this business to make money or am I in this business to build a business? Because if you're building a business, that's going to be worth something.

chris:

Yeah, we see a little bit of this up in northern New Hampshire now. We're having a hard time finding plumbers and things like that. Some of these plumbers are getting older and they decided that they're just going to make their money. They don't want to bring on apprentices or anything like that because it's too much trouble. You know all the other stuff that goes along with building a business they're not interested in. So now they're just basically driving around in vans doing their jobs. But the problem with that now is actually it's the apprentices are not being trained and so you can't find any apprentice plumbers. They're all kind of fleeing northern New Hampshire. So over time we're going to lose the ability to have a plumber in New Hampshire, especially northern New Hampshire, because these guys are all aging out.

chris:

And they're just not building their businesses out. Yeah, so there are people that do that. That's interesting, yeah, kind of a side note.

dennis:

So year five. You're looking back and you're saying have we hit our marks over the years? Have we had five consecutive years of growth? Have we leveled off? I do find that business owners, we all find our leveling off point. Some business owners level off at the end of year one.

dennis:

You know that carpenter that used to make 30 bucks an hour working for this particular company goes out on his own and he can bill out at you know $80 an hour and maybe he's netting you know 55 an hour and he's able to bill out at 40 hours a week. He might be happy doing that. He's making more money than he was in his previous job and now he's the boss, he's calling the shots and he may level off after a year or two. But the business owner, the one man with a pickup truck and a tool belt who wants to grow and build a contracting business where he has five, six, seven crews, you know he's going to be looking towards growth. Which one of those guys are you? Ask yourself that question Are you building a business or are you just making really good money? And there is a difference between the two.

chris:

And it's good that you know again, one's not better than the other, but at least know you're consciously making that choice. Some people don't even know they're consciously making that choice, that actually build a real business is even an option for them. They just haven't asked that question or talked to the right people.

dennis:

Sure, and they may not even realize. That's a piece to the puzzle. It's exactly right. I know a lot of business owners who didn't retire they just couldn't do the work anymore who didn't retire they just couldn't do the work anymore. So as they aged out they didn't bring in a younger team to take over. And this happens a lot in the home services and in the contractor business. They just age out and the truck and the van get parked out back behind the house and that's kind of how things end and it's kind of too bad because there's probably some value there. But a lot of times too, the contractor's son or daughters or children don't want to take over that business.

chris:

Yeah, you see that a lot.

dennis:

Yeah, you do In the old days the way old days farmers would always turn the business over to their children. I worked on a farm when I was a kid back in the 60s and 70s and I worked for Mr Mahoney Mahoney's Farm right on the Framingham Sudbury line and I picked eggs. I work with chickens all the time. If there was nothing to do you can pick strawberries and then in the fall he'd bring us back for a harvest of corn and other such things. But for the most part all summer long you're just picking eggs. He had probably 2,500 to 3,000 laying hens. I couldn't even count anymore. His facility was so big and we'd pick, you know 25, 2,700 eggs every day in in cartons of three dozen yeah, me and three other guys.

dennis:

And I remember and he was much older than my parents, you know, his kids were like my parents' age and I was, you know, 13. And I remember all through my high school years I didn't really work there anymore. I was a little too busy. You know, life gets in the way. But my parents always knew Mr and Mrs Mahoney. They'd stop at the farm stand and my mom would pick up eggs and strawberries and corn and other stuff. And when I went off to college, one of the two, mr and Mrs Mahoney, took ill and they couldn't run the farm anymore and their kids wanted nothing to do with the farm and I mean it was acres and acres of just beautiful rolling hills with strawberry fields and corn. Do you remember Mahoney's farm? Yeah, I do, right across from Knob's.

chris:

Cop Mountain. Yeah, yeah, we used to spend a lot of Saturday mornings on Knob's Cop Mountain running.

dennis:

And yeah, and Mr Mahoney's kids wanted nothing to do with farming. The land was sold, turned into condos. Yeah, yeah, I think it's called Mahoney Farms Condominiums now something like that. Yeah, it was a nice piece of property.

chris:

Yeah, they call it a silver tsunami. And basically right now they say 75% of small businesses owned by boomers are going to either be sold, transferred or go out of business in the next 10 years. Can you imagine that? 75% small businesses? Well, the boomers were all in that age bracket. Yeah, and they own all these businesses.

chris:

And again, their kids aren't taking them over. So they either got to sell them, give them to a kid or shut them down. And yeah, it's a huge, huge number. It's especially big in rural areas. We have rural shops and things like that. I'll bet.

dennis:

Wow.

chris:

Yeah, I think you've seen some scramble by VCs and people like that to find some of these businesses, because the good ones are going to go quick. The rest of them probably won't, but the good ones are going to go quick, so there's a little bit of scramble going on, according to what I was reading about going out and finding some of these small businesses that are going to be changing hands. My doctor.

dennis:

He's an orthopedic surgeon here in Cape Cod. He and I were talking not too long ago and his practice he's the owner of the practice. They are regularly contacted by venture capitalists and people like this who want to buy their practice and bring it under their umbrella. They're a bunch of VCs that are buying up medical businesses, dental offices, and such Venture capitalists are making moves in this direction as well. Well, because they view it as profitable.

dennis:

And that kind of brings us to the end of our five-year plan and one of the reasons you want to keep good records accurate sales growth, monthly and annual annual profit growth, annual balance sheet, business value growth. You want to keep these records. You want to ask yourself what is our current value? What are we worth and where will we be in five more years, year 10? It gets to our final piece, to the five-year plan, and the five-year plan might and the five-year plan might be a 10-year plan, but no matter what that, whether it's a 10 or a 20-year plan, you want to build in some component of an exit strategy, Because if your company is building value over the five or 10 or 15 or 20 years that you own it and run it, and it may even be 25 years. There's a value at the end of that rainbow and while you're making good money and you're investing well and you're doing really well, it's always nice, if you're a business owner, to walk away with a nice chunk of change at the end. The value of that is going to be based upon. That question that we asked in the previous segment on the five-year plan is are we building a business or are we just making money? The owner-operator, the one-man or two-man electrical contracting business probably not going to fetch a whole lot of money at the end of it all, because without Pete's electrical contracting services it isn't worth a whole lot. But if Pete owns eight vans and has 12 to 14 employees, he's got a valid company there. That's going to be worth something.

dennis:

So that gets to our final piece of this puzzle is the exit strategy. Every solid business model should have an exit strategy and this is why we keep accurate records. This is why we keep updating our balance sheets, our sales records, our P&Ls. And even if that exit strategy isn't a complete exit, maybe it is a family member's gonna take it over.

dennis:

Maybe you're running the restaurant and your son and your daughter work for that restaurant. Maybe you wanna step out and you might wanna take a little bit of equity. When you do, Maybe you're gonna step out and take a million dollars away. How are you going to take that million dollar walk away? Well, if you have good records and your business is worth five times that and the business can accommodate a monthly payment to carry that debt service, then you can take a million dollars and walk away and leave the business to your kids. Or you don't have to take that million dollar walk away, Just step away and continue to take a salary. There's a lot of options that come in an exit strategy and there's people that specialize as business brokers.

chris:

And I was just going to say it goes back to your circle. You know there's a lot of people in that circle that you need to actually advise you on this all the way through, you know, to the point where you're ready to pull the trigger.

dennis:

Yeah, and at that time you're going to ask yourself, as all business owners do are you prepared to sell, are you prepared to transfer ownership to employees, to the next generation of your family, or are you prepared to take on a partner and maybe work part-time? There's a lot of pieces to that puzzle of exit strategy and that is we all face that. I've bought, I've built, I've sold many businesses in my life and it's not as emotional as you think. Sometimes selling a business is the right. When we bought the inn, we were thrilled Babs and I, we had a little infant, another one on the way, and we thought this would be the greatest thing. We're going to be home raising our kids. And for 10 years we were innkeepers. All our kids were born and grew up there at the inn. It was great. It was a great way to raise a family and one of the reasons we got into the business of being an innkeeper or innkeepers was for the family. And 10 years later we realized our kids don't take vacations, they can't run around in their underwear on a Saturday because we're always on. And while it was a lot of fun, it was probably the greatest job I'll ever have. It was hard the most hours I'll ever work. We sold.

dennis:

One of the key reasons for selling that business was for the family. Our family had outgrown it. The shoe didn't fit anymore. It's time to move on and, believe me, it was a great sale. We walked away good, never shed a tear. The timing was right. I've had a few other small businesses and companies that I have sold. You know started from little to nothing and sold, and, believe me, it's great to walk away with a little money in your pocket. That's for sure it really is. So keep that in mind. Exit strategy it's huge, all right.

chris:

All right Sounds good. Do we leave anything out? I don't think so. I think that was your complete list. Again, we touch on a lot of these things. We've touched on almost all these topics, so we kind of came back to this one to kind of finish it off, but it's an important and so we're constantly coming back to the finances the balance sheets, the sales records, the profit and loss statements, and you'll forever hear Chris and I saying things like don't go to where the puck is.

dennis:

Go to where the puck is going to be when you get there. It hints at being a visionary. Look ahead. Don't be looking two, three weeks out. Yeah, look at this month as compared to last year in this particular month, but look ahead one, two, three years.

chris:

See where you're going so you know where you're going to be when you get there, yep, yep, and start as early as you can, and if you haven't done that, then start now, because there's no time better than the present.

dennis:

Okay, no monkeys were harmed in the making of this podcast. Thanks for listening.

chris:

All right, see you guys next time. Bye, thank you for tuning in to Monkey Business Radio. If you enjoyed today's episode, please make sure to subscribe, like and follow us wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps us reach more aspiring entrepreneurs like you, and if you've got a question or topic you'd like us to cover, leave a comment or reach out to us on social media. We'd love to hear your thoughts and keep the conversation going. Don't forget to leave us a five-star review if you found the episode valuable and make sure to share it with anyone who might benefit from our tips and stories. We'll see you next time. Benefit from our tips and stories. We'll see you next time. This podcast is produced by American Gutter Monkeys LLC. Build real wealth through business ownership. For details, visit us at AmericanGutterMonkeyscom.