Why Renovate the Kitchen Just Before You Sell?

I have been thinking about business stories a lot lately, and one came back to me from very early in my business life.

I was working with a local restaurateur who one day took me over to show me their brand-new cash register.

“How good is this?”

I smiled and was pleased for them.

But the accountant in me was wondering.

If the cash register needed replacing, were the transactions in the past accurate?

How did they manage with a machine that was not fully functioning?

Did they know there was a problem?

A few weeks later, they called me and told me they had sold the business.

My first thought was, Oh, I now understand why you replaced the cash register.

They had bought the business from someone else for a bargain, and the systems they had inherited weren’t the best.

The new cash register now made more sense.

And it made me think about something Rohan and I have spoken about at home many times.

Why renovate the kitchen just before you sell?

If you own a house and the kitchen needs renovating, why would you wait until you are about to sell the property to upgrade the kitchen?

Why not renovate it earlier and enjoy it yourself?

Why put in the money, do the work, improve the property and then hand the benefit to the next owner?

The same applies in business.

Owners can spend years living with poor pricing, weak margins, cash flow problems, inadequate systems, long hours, stress and too much owner dependency.

Then, when they start thinking about selling, suddenly they begin fixing everything.

·The financial records

·The pricing policy

·The margins

·The systems and processes

·Staff training

·Owner dependency

All of those things needed attention over the period they owned the business.

But why wait until someone else is about to own the business before fixing them?

Make the business better for you first.

Most small business owners are so busy doing the day-to-day that they do not have the time, or sometimes do not make the time, to be future-focused.

The Silent Cost of Tolerating Pain

But when they start thinking about selling, suddenly the problems become urgent.

They know a buyer may not want to take on the same problems they have been living with.

They also know that a buyer will look at the financial records, profitability, margins, systems, staff capability and how dependent the business is on the owner.

So they start fixing things.

But a lot of those fixes would have benefited the current owner years earlier.

Take pricing and margins.

From a lot of the work we see, people are not making the margins they should because they do not properly understand their costing.

They look at someone else’s price and use that as the guide.

If the pricing is wrong, the margin is wrong.

If the margin is wrong, cash flow becomes harder.

And if cash flow is always under pressure, the owner carries that stress.

Why wait until you are preparing to sell before fixing that?

You want to make money while you own the business, not just when you sell it.

What needs renovating in your business?

Don’t wait until you want to sell the business to make it a good business.

Build a business that works well for you now, one that makes money, gives you choices, and is good enough that somebody else would want to put their hand up for it.

Why would you spend years tolerating poor pricing, weak margins, cash flow issues, inadequate systems, long hours, stress and owner dependency, then fix them for the benefit of someone buying?

Build the business you would be proud to own.

Build the business you can enjoy the fruits of.

Then, if one day someone else wants to buy it, inherit it or run it for you, you have choices.

Your 90-day Priority

Perhaps the question for this week is:

What is one thing in your business that needs renovating?

Pick one priority for the next 90 days.

Work on it.

And hold yourself accountable.

Ready to review whether your current business design still supports what you want to achieve? Explore our insights and strategic resources for business owners at towardsgrowth.com.au.

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Towards Growth is a strategic business advisory and mentoring practice.

The ideas, insights and client stories we share come from our own work and practical experience, with AI used for editorial support.

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