Foreword

In almost three decades at Inc. magazine—first as senior editor, then executive editor, then editor at large—I have had many great mentors, and they’ve given me an extraordinary education in entrepreneurship. Among the many things I’ve learned from them has been the fundamental paradox that lies at the heart of company-building, at least as it is practiced by the smartest entrepreneurs: You should always run a company as if it will last forever, and yet you should also strive constantly to maximize its value, building in the qualities that allow it to be sold at any moment for the highest price buyers are paying for businesses like yours.

That’s the philosophy of Jack Stack, the cofounder and CEO of SRC Holdings Corp. in Springfield, Missouri, with whom I have written two books, The Great Game of Business and A Stake in the Outcome, that explore the mechanisms he and his colleagues have used to create such an enterprise. It’s also the philosophy of Norm Brodsky, the serial entrepreneur with whom I have written another book, Street Smarts (formerly The Knack), as well as a long-running column in Inc. of the same name.

And it’s the philosophy of John Warrillow. John, in fact, refers to this approach as having an “options strategy,” as opposed to an “exit strategy.” The idea is to have as many choices in the future as possible. When you follow an options strategy, he says, you build systems and a management team around you so that if a buyer comes along, or you decide it’s the right time to get out, you have a sellable business. Or so that you can install a president and move into a chairman’s role, which is a kind of quasi-exit. Or so that you can stay involved day to day and work on building an enduring company that can go on without you.

The point is that the best businesses are sellable, and smart businesspeople believe that you should build a company to be sold even if you have no intention of cashing out or stepping back anytime soon. If you share that belief, this book is right up your alley. John does a masterful job in Built to Sell of illuminating the qualities that business buyers look for in a company, and he does it in a thoroughly enjoyable and engaging manner: by telling a story. Although Alex Stapleton, the lead character in the story, owns an advertising agency, the fundamental lessons he learns apply to any business, and reading about them can only serve to sharpen your thinking about how to make your own company sellable, no matter what type of business you are in.

John is certainly the right person to turn to for advice on this subject. Few people know the world of small business better than he does. I first heard about him in connection with a conference that his business, Warrillow & Co., organized every year to help Fortune 500 marketers figure out how to sell to small companies. The conference had acquired a reputation as the premier event for learning what smaller businesses wanted and how best to reach them. In addition to the conferences, Warrillow & Co. produced in-depth research papers on small business, based on annual surveys of some ten thousand business owners. A hundred giant corporations paid the firm substantial fees for access to those papers, as well as for the insights John and his associates had developed along the way. John himself hosted a nationally syndicated radio show on entrepreneurship. That’s actually how he came to start his business: Big companies began approaching him for advice on reaching the small business market. He went on to sell Warrillow & Co. in 2008, which he couldn’t have done without building a company that could continue to thrive without him.

And that’s why this book is so good. John Warrillow has studied entrepreneurs; he’s interviewed hundreds of them on the radio; he’s built his own company around the small business market; and he’s sold that business to someone else. If you want to find out what it really takes to build a sellable business, it’s always best to listen first to someone who has done it himself. John Warrillow is your man.

BO BURLINGHAM
Editor at large, Inc. magazine and author of
Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be
Great Instead of Big