By Carl Grimes
- Pivot
- New normal
Pivot. Everyone in business it seems has pivoted or needs to pivot or failed to pivot.
Before last year pivot was, to me, a position played by the tallest guy on the basketball team.
Or it was the funny move Curly of the Three Stooges did when he planted his left foot and spun around in a circle.
Now it’s a serious business term meaning, “We were doing that and now we’re doing this,” as in we were meeting our clients in person, face to face, and now we’re doing only online meetings, or “We were delivering a quality dining experience in our restaurant but now we’re delivering or doing pick up only.”
A change, a quick change in order to meet the unexpected demands placed on us by the government and Covid.
Some pivoted and survived but others were unable to do so and have gone away to where failed businesses go.
The same thing happened in 2008-2010 when the economy crashed and credit dried up and, even though we didn’t call it “pivoting” that’s what happened as businesses fought to survive the long running recession.
New Normal…who knows exactly what that means?
The business community is still dealing with the unprecedented closures of businesses and schools and we don’t know exactly what our future looks like.
We just know it won’t be the same-old, same-old.
CBI’s Pivot
Here’s a pivot we here at CBI have adopted to try and help our business community as they continue to try and figure out whether or not they can sell their businesses.
It means having a much better look back at business revenues.
In the past we would generally ask a business owner to provide three years of tax returns and a year to date P&L with a comparison to the same period in the previous year.
In the “new normal pivot” knowing what buyers are looking for, we here at CBI are asking business owners to provide monthly P&Ls for 2019, 2020 and 2021.
We know, and have consulted with business valuation experts, that being able to chart the revenue and expenses of a business on a month-to-month basis to compare the “old” with the “new normal” is required to determine the bounce back, rebound of revenue/income for that business.
So being able to compare the last full “normal year” 2019 with the abnormal 2020 and the rebound of 2021 is a key to determining how a business has coped with the issue of Covid.
Please keep this in mind when working with a CBI Professional Intermediary. They are trying to help you determine what will happen when buyers look at your business through the prism of Covid.
Did you successfully pivot and prepare for the new normal?
Your numbers will tell the tale.
For more information about this contact carl.grimes@cbiteam.com for information about a webinar we are conducting about this vital topic.
