Week 13 Reading Reflection

What I found most surprising in the reading was the vast scope of factors that determine a venture's value. When I was in my teens my mother had toyed with the notion of selling her business. This was before the '08 crash and the business was doing quite well. I remember her coming up with a valuation that was over inflated and as a result couldn't find a buyer. I know she did not take all of the necessary steps to come up with a truly accurate valuation.

There was nothing in this chapter that I found to be confusing. Valuation is a complicated process but the author did a good job of breaking down the necessary steps.

Two questions I have for the author would include: "When doing a due diligence evaluation, what is a reasonable margin of error to keep in mind between the owners asking price and one's own valuation?" and "When basing value on assets and liabilities, how much value would you put on the experience of the workers themselves?"


There was nothing in this chapter I disagreed with. The author did a great job of breaking down valuation techniques and I feel I now have a better understanding of determining my businesses value.

Celebrating Failure

A time I failed this semester was when my girlfriend and I came to the realization that our plans to move out of state this summer were not to be. I had received a job offer from an old boss now living in Tennessee. This offer and its location seemed to provide exactly what we were looking for so we perused a plan to be moved up there by this summer. I had already made arrangements with my current job to let them know of my plans and we had both told our families, who all live in this area. However about a month ago we reached a point where a decision to stay or go had to be made and we had to accept the fact that we weren't going to be able to leave due to a number of factors, money being the most paramount.

I learned a great deal from this experience. When the offer was first made to me, neither my girlfriend nor I could find any real flaw in our plan. In hindsight we both had a major confirmation bias. The facts that forced us to reconsider our plan were present from the beginning, but we refused to see them. This incident taught me to be much more objective in my decision making and goal setting. I have to force my self to weigh all of the facts, not just the ones that support my argument.

Failure is certainly embarrassing. When I had to tell my boss and my family that I wasn't going I felt almost ashamed of myself. As I stated above I was forced to re-evaluate the way I make decisions and set goals. I try to handle failure by moving past it and focusing on bettering myself. I do not like to dwell, although sometimes it really can't be helped. I think the challenges this class has presented and my own reflections in the assignments has helped my handling of risk to some measurable degree. Next time I plan a major life change I will be able to follow through.

My Exit Strategy

In five years time I hope to have grown my business into a profitable venture and one in which I can pursue one of two options:

1. Sell the business, invest the profits and pursue other life long goals
2. Continue to own the business and focus on hiring and training a managerial staff so I can pursue other interests. 

Which strategy I would take will be based on the condition of my business as well as the condition of the economic environment at the time. The main goal however is to be able to spend my time on other ventures. I do not plan on staying in the sign business forever. I have grown into this industry and know a good deal about it, however it is not where my true passions lie. I have always wanted to own and operate my own flight school, specifically one aimed at Sport Pilot training, and my over all goal is to make enough money to be able to pursue this venture.

I do not think my exit strategy has effected my choices so far in any noticeable way. The amount of work required to make my vision into a reality is the same regardless if I plan to sell in five years or run it until I retire. The opportunity I identified came to me from my current job. My equipment would have to come the way of financing and hopefully the outstanding debts that would create would be paid off in five years time.