Type and hit ENTER

  • Home
  • Articles
  • About
  • The Book
  • Media
  • Speaking
  • Subscribe Free
  • Advisory
  • Contact
GET CONNECTED

 

"Witty, clever and extremely relevant in these godforsaken Zoom times." Zoë Foster Blake

Book on sale now from Penguin Random House.

  • Home
  • Articles
  • About
  • The Book
  • Media
  • Speaking
  • Subscribe Free
  • Advisory
  • Contact
Hell’s Bells: why I don’t have an exit strategy
Share
Articles

Hell’s Bells: why I don’t have an exit strategy

May 16, 2022
-
Posted by Ian Whitworth

 

I like the audio version better than the written version this week.

Best to listen straight off Spotify though, the browser version is buggy.

 


I choose to ignore your correct exit strategy advice

 

Any advisor will tell you that competent business owners need a clear, documented exit strategy. And they’re sort of right.

Yet I don’t have an exit strategy. I have a non-exit strategy. The reason for that was clarified the other night in an excellent pub conversation with an English person, when I learned all about bells. The enormous bronze ones you put in your cathedral.

How long do you think your business will last? Two, maybe three decades would be a pretty solid innings, wouldn’t it?

Not in the cast bell game. Taylor Bells, one of the two main players in that field, is still in business after 650 years. Yes, six hundred and fifty. The other one, Whitechapel Bells, still exists but stopped casting bells in 2017 after 447 years.

I love this so much. It highlights the choice you make with your business.

 

Long or short game: either is good but it’s a choice

 

You can create an organisation that fills a market gap, and through hard work and sacrifice makes you enough money to support your family. Maybe even make you a pile of money when you sell it.

Wherever it ends up, however long or short the journey, that is a deeply honourable path to tread.

Or you can go: I will create a business that has the best track record in its field. That attracts staff who are motivated by that. And brings customers from around the world who aren’t looking for a deal, but rather a product that will last a lifetime. Where their purchase becomes a badge of their high standards.

That’s what the bell people do, and I find it very attractive.

 

 

A Taylor bell that is still out there working fine

A few customers you may have heard of

 

Have you heard of their projects? Damn right you have. Whitechapel did the USA’s Liberty Bell. Big Ben? They did it. Lincoln Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, New York’s Bell Of Hope in memory of the September 11 attacks. The mega-bell made for the London Olympics opening.

Taylor did Great Paul in 1881 for St Paul’s Cathedral, at 17 tonnes the biggest bell cast in Britain. Canberra’s Carillon. St Peter’s in Adelaide, a city serious about churches.

 

Bradley Wiggins rings the bell on the 2012 London Olympics

 

Best of all, when AC/DC toured their landmark Back In Black album in 1980, before they were proven stadium-fillers and with an unknown new singer, they did not fuck around with any discount bell.

They went to Taylor for an 1100kg beast, so heavy its roadcase wheels punched holes in stages around the world. AC/DC knew the score. Buying a Taylor bell is a statement: we have the taste and expertise to know what’s the best, and we’re prepared to pay for it.

 

Respect the commitment

 

Everything about these British bell casters is an inspiring commitment to the work. They still dig a pit and bury the bell moulds in the factory floor earth, a method other bell makers abandoned 200 years ago to save time and money.

“We are convinced that allowing the bell to cool slowly in the earth over a period of days gives a better molecular structure and a better sounding bell – and our discerning customers agree with us.”

I can’t comment on molecular structure. But if customers believe it, their brains will make them hear the below-earth difference.

And the long-term survivors in any market tend to be the ones in the Really Good + Very Expensive corner of the quadrant.

They just get more profitable as their reputation builds over generations.

 

What would you do?

 

Building a business to sell creates a very different beast to one that you plan to keep.

How would you approach your business if you wanted it to run for 650 years?

Think about your own answers, though I won’t leave it hanging like a needy LinkedIn post.

Obviously 650 years is a little outside your control, but you have to start somewhere and it’s a good mental exercise.

If you’re playing a centuries-long game, you’re going to really believe in your product. That mindset can swing both ways. Some business people get too close to their product and forget about the customers. But if you understand your customers’ needs, they will pick up on your love of what you do.

This is why businesses under private equity ownership will never outperform privately held ones long-term. Because the customers can smell that all they care about is money.

Sell to those guys, and you’ll announce it with a press release saying: “This won’t change any of those things you love about our brand.” And it will be a lie. They don’t give a damn about a good product, and will restructure the business in ways that stop it delivering one.

 

Exit strategy

“We really respect what you’ve built here and we want to keep that intact.”

What can you be the best at?

 

My uncle is a long-term business hero to me. He has a very successful 50+ year-old business that he’s still very involved with in his 80s, and he leads a great life.

He told me when I was young and clueless: if you don’t think you can do something better than anyone else, you shouldn’t start a business.

It doesn’t have to be the entire market. It’s stupid to think you’ll be the best in a field that already has lots of players. The art is in finding a specialist niche that you can own yourself.

Then you attract staff who feel the same way. Who are driven by professional pride, rather than just getting paid. Who can do what you do in a few years.

If you don’t have one eye on packaging up the business for a sale, it makes more sense to invest in those people. Both money and your time.

 

Exits look good but might not be

 

Businesses take longer to get going than your optimistic founder plans suggest. Our business is really just hitting the sweet spot after fifteen years.

If we’d sold after ten years, we would have been comfy and looked like business winners. High fives all round. And it would have been a terrible commercial result for us.

Even with the COVID interruption, our business is a long way ahead of where it was at the ten year mark. It can take that long for a decent number of clients to see you as a safe option, then the momentum kicks in.

My co-founder and I don’t work in the business so there’s no particular need to get out. And it will produce decent dividends for … 650 years is a bit of a stretch, but certainly for a long time.

We spend a lot of time thinking about succession plans for everyone in the business, and investing for the long haul. There are plenty of great reasons for people having an exit strategy. We just don’t have any of them.

This is not the right advice for everyone. If yours is an all-digital business, sell that thing in a heartbeat before Facebook algorithm whims wipe you off the map. This story is just one guy’s perspective to balance out the prevailing wisdom.

 

I will miss our talks together

 

Either way, the money is really nice, but enough is enough. My non-exit plan goes to the core of my soul: I fucking love the businesses. I love seeing people go from trainee to legend in a few years. I love the mental chess. I love the experiments and the gambles. I love seeing how far we’ve come from our corner-store origins.

I’m happy to spend more or less time on the businesses depending on my mood, but I need them there or I’d be bored out of my mind.

I was reminded of this when I read this fine NYT article on design wizard Jony Ive’s departure from Apple. Specifically this scene the day Jobs died:

“Less than 15 miles away, Mr Ive sat in the garden outside Mr. Jobs’s home. The October sky was hazy that day and his shoes were too tight. He felt numb as he recalled the last words his boss and friend told him: I will miss our talks together.”

I will miss our talks together. It brought home to me how much I live for those conversations with people I rate. Specifically my business partners, but also many others. We talk most days, and it is always an uplifting experience, even when the subject is some nightmare problem.

 

Exit Plan: Jony Ive and Steve Jobs

Jony Ive and Steve Jobs having a nice chat

 

If we sold the businesses, my life would be so much poorer. My personal relationships would suffer, because those around me love how those business interactions energise me.

I’d become one of those people who takes cruises, complains about their rental tenants, and has strong opinions about franking credits.

Honestly, just shoot me if that ever happens.

Could I ask for a gigantic cast bell for the funeral though? That would be cool.

 


 

PS Something else that would suck: I’d have to stop writing. I promise that the very day I’m not hands-on involved in business, I will hang up the blog. Because otherwise I’d just be one of those people delivering secondhand accounts of what actual working business people have told them. That just leads to Simon Sinek, and again: just shoot me.

 


Hey help me out

If this story was useful or entertaining for you, why not help me out by sharing it? It’s a ton of work getting these stories out, and more readers really helps me justify the insane effort each week. Bless you.

 

Why not buy this nice book?

Want to break free of a job that sucks and live life on your own terms? All that plus more entertainment than your average business book: Undisruptable: Timeless Business Truths For Thriving In A World Of Nonstop Change.

Every week since it came out 8 months ago, it’s the #1 Review-Rated biz book on all of Booktopia. On paper, electronic or audio book with me reading it. Get it here:

 

Undisruptable Booktopia Review Ratings

Also I write a story each Tuesday, drop your email here to get it in your inbox.

For those of you in geo-blocked countries, here’s your non-Spotify audio:

 

https://ianwhitworth.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Hells-Bells.mp3
May 16, 2022

Related News

Other posts that you should not miss.
Post-JobKeeper Tips
Articles

Realistic Post-Jobkeeper Survival Tips

March 29, 2021
-
Posted by Ian Whitworth

Businesses in tourism, events, hospitality, the arts and entertainment are in deep trouble. Some realistic tips on how to survive.

Read More
March 29, 2021
Posted by Ian Whitworth
Articles

‘User Empathy’: How To Profit From A Few Good Words

August 30, 2021
-
Posted by Ian Whitworth

How can a few short words become a powerful competitive edge? This week we look at opportunities most companies ignore, to make customers like you.

Read More
August 30, 2021
Posted by Ian Whitworth
Scene Change Virtual Studio For School Events
Articles

Behind The Scenes As We Launch Our Pivot

August 24, 2020
-
Posted by Ian Whitworth

Lessons learned as we attempt to pivot a business shut down by COVID laws

Read More
August 24, 2020
Posted by Ian Whitworth
← PREVIOUS POST
Simon Sinek is the worst motivator, prove me wrong
NEXT POST →
6 tips to survive the skills shortage 
FREE E-BOOK

SUBSCRIBE
MOST POPULAR
  • Last-minute grocery businesses are a massive bag of dicks
    June 27, 2022

    It’s a business model that seems to have cherry-picked all the worst, hardest, most expensive elements of running a business.

  • Scotty Marketing
    3 post-Scotty lessons: good marketing is not like that
    May 30, 2022

    Don't be a product that people only buy once. How to make marketing a force for honesty and profitability in your business instead.

  • Undisruptable South Korea deal
    Undisruptable’s first international publishing deal
    January 31, 2022

    Undisruptable will see its first international release later this year and it's not in a country you'd expect.

  • “An Australian business classic.” Reviews of Undisruptable
    July 12, 2021

    The reviews are in and they are very good.

ABOUT IAN WHITWORTH

Ian Whitworth is a reformed advertising creative director turned entrepreneur with a successful national group of businesses that he doesn’t work in day to day. Read more

POPULAR TAGS
management
branding
Sales
Marketing
jargon
Persuasion
Covid 19
Nickelback
Pitching
Coronavirus
strategy
MBA
startup
Copywriting
Motivation
Business
CEO
Design
Graphic Design
Business Travel
Elon Musk
Frequent Flyer
David Attenborough
Advice
Lacey Filipich
Saxton Speakers
Scene Change
Penguin Random House
Gary Vaynerchuk
Sales Pitch
Tendering
Planning
Conversation Skills
Customers
Customer Service
AI
Shingy
LinkedIn
Simon Sinek
Success
Presentations
Mr Pigden
Motivators
Entrepreneur
Ian Wright
Archives
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy
  • Terms & Conditions
© Whitworth Communications 2020
Hell’s Bells: why I don’t have an exit strategy - Undisruptable